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THE BOOK OF DELIGHT 

AND 

OTHER PAPERS 



THE BOOK OF DELIGHT 



AND 



OTHER PAPERS 



BY 

ISRAEL ABRAHAMS, M. A. 

Author of "Jewish Life in the Middle Ages," "Chapters on 
Jewish Literature," etc. 




Philadelphia 

The Jewish Publication Society of America 

1912 






Copyright, 1912, 

BY 

The Jewish Publication Society of America 



f A^ 

C!,A33023 
Mo / 



PREFACE 

The chapters of this volume were almost all 
spoken addresses. The author has not now changed 
their character as such, for it seemed to him that 
to convert them into formal essays would be to rob 
them of any little attraction they may possess. 

One of the addresses — that on " Medieval Way- 
faring " — was originally spoken in Hebrew, in 
Jerusalem. It was published, in part, in English 
in the London Jewish Chronicle, and the author is 
indebted to the conductors of that periodical for 
permission to include this, and other material, in 
the present collection. 

Some others of the chapters have been printed 
before, but a considerable proportion of the volume 
is quite new, and even those addresses that are re- 
printed are now given In a fuller and much revised 
text. 

As several of the papers were intended for pop- 
ular audiences, the author is persuaded that It would 
ill accord with his original design to overload the 
book with notes and references. These have been 

5 



PREFACE 

supplied only where absolutely necessary, and a few 
additional notes are appended at the end of the 
volume. 

The author realizes that the book can have little 
permanent value. But as these addresses seemed to 
give pleasure to those who heard them, he thought 
it possible that they might provide passing enter- 
tainment also to those who are good enough to read 
them. 

Israel Abrahams 

Cambridge, Eng., September, 1911 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I. " The Book of Delight " 9 

II. A Visit to Hebron 62 

III. The Solace of Books 93 

IV. Medieval Wayfaring 123 

V. The Fox's Heart 159 

VI. "Marriages Are Made in Heaven" 172 

VII. Hebrew Love Songs 184 

VIII. A Handful of Curiosities 

i. George Eliot and Solomon Malmon 242 

ii. How Milton Pronounced Hebrew 247 

iii. The Cambridge Platonists 251 

iv. The Anglo-Jewish Yiddish Literary Society 255 

V. The Mystics and Saints of India 259 

vi. Lost Purim Joys 266 

vii. Jews and Letters 273 

viii. The Shape of Matzoth 290 

Notes 301 

Index 317 



I 



" THE BOOK OF DELIGHT '' 

Joseph Zabara has only in recent times received 
the consideration justly due to him. Yet his 
" Book of Delight," finished about the year 1200, 
is more than a poetical romance. It is a golden link 
between folk-literature and imaginative poetry. 
The style is original, and the framework of the 
story is an altogether fresh adaptation of a famous 
legend. The anecdotes and epigrams introduced 
incidentally also partake of this twofold quality. 
The author has made them his own, yet they are 
mostly adapted rather than invented. Hence, the 
poem is as valuable to the folklorist as to the 
literary critic. For, though Zabara's compilation 
is similar to such well-known models as the " Book 
of Sindbad," the Kalilah ve-Dimnah, and others 
of the same class, yet Its appearance in Europe is 
half a century earlier than the translations by which 
these other products of the East became part of 
the popular literature of the Western world. At 
the least, then, the " Book of Delight " Is an impor- 
tant addition to the scanty store of the folk-lore 

9 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

records of the early part of the thirteenth century. 
The folk-lore Interest' of the book Is, Indeed, 
greater than was known formerly, for it Is now 
recognized as a variant of the Solomon-Marcolf 
legend. On this more will be said below. 

As a poet and as a writer of Hebrew, Joseph 
Zabara's place Is equally significant. He was one 
of the first to write extended narratives in He- 
brew rhymed prose with Interspersed snatches of 
verse, the form Invented by Arabian poets, and 
much esteemed as the medium for story-telling and 
for writing social satire. The best and best-known 
specimens of this form of poetry In Hebrew are 
Charlzi's Tachkemoni, and his translation of 
Hariri. Zabara has less art than Charizi, and far 
less technical skill, yet in him all the qualities are 
in the bud that Charlzi's poems present in the full- 
blown flower. The reader of Zabara feels that 
other poets will develop his style and surpass him ; 
the reader of Charizi knows of a surety that in him 
the style has reached its climax. 

Of Joseph Zabara little is known beyond what 
may be gleaned from a discriminating study of the 
" Book of Delight." That this romance is largely 
autobiographical in fact, as It Is in form, there can 
be no reasonable doubt. The poet writes with so 

10 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

much Indignant warmth of the dwellers In certain 
cities, of their manner of life, their morals, and 
their culture, that one can only infer that he is re- 
lating his personal experiences. Zabara, like the 
hero of his romance, travelled much during the 
latter portion of the twelfth century, as is known 
from the researches of Geiger. He was born in. 
Barcelona, and returned there to die. In the inter- 
val, we find him an apt pupil of Joseph Kimchi, In 
Narbonne. Joseph Kimchi, the founder of the 
famous Kimchi family, carried the culture of Spain 
to Provence; and Joseph Zabara may have ac- 
quired from Kimchi his mastery over Hebrew, 
which he writes with purity and simplicity. The 
difficulties presented In some passages of the " Book 
of Delight " are entirely due to the corrupt state of 
the text. Joseph Kimchi, who flourished in Pro- 
vence from 1 1 50 to 1 170, quotes Joseph Zabara 
twice, with approval. In explaining verses In Pro- 
verbs. It would thus seem that Zabara, even In his 
student days, was devoted to the proverb-lore on 
which he draws so lavishly In his maturer work. 

Dr. Steinschnelder, to whom belongs the credit 
of rediscovering Zabara In modern times. Infers 
that the poet was a physician. There Is more 
than probability In the case; there is certainty. 

11 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT*' 

The romance is built by a doctor; there is more 
talk of medicine in it than of any other topic 
of discussion. Moreover, the author, who denies 
that he is much of a Talmudist, accepts the compli- 
ment paid to him by his visitor, Enan, that he is 
" skilled and well-informed in the science of medi- 
cine." There is, too, a professional tone about 
many of the quips and gibes in which Zabara in- 
dulges concerning doctors. Here, for instance, is 
an early form of a witticism that has been attributed 
to many recent humorists. " A philosopher," says 
Zabara, " was sick unto death, and his doctor gave 
him up; yet the patient recovered. The convales- 
cent was walking in the street when the doctor met 
him. ' You come,' said he, * from the other world.' 
* Yes,' rejoined the patient, ' I come from there, 
and I saw there the awful retribution that falls on 
doctors; for they kill their patients. Yet, do 
not feel alarmed. You will not suffer. I told them 
on my oath that you are no doctor.' " 

Again, in one of the poetical interludes (found 
only in the Constantinople edition) occurs this very 
professional sneer, *' A doctor and the Angel of 
Death both kill, but the former charges a fee." 
Who but a doctor would enter into a scathing de- 
nunciation of the current system of diagnosis, as 

12 



" THE BOOK OF DELIGHT " 

Zabara does In a sarcastic passage, which Erter 
may have imitated unconsciously? And If further 
proof be needed that Zabara was a man of science, 
the evidence Is forthcoming; for Zabara appeals 
several times to experiment In proof of his asser- 
tions. And to make assurance doubly sure, the 
author Informs his readers In so many words of his 
extensive medical practice In his native place. 

If Zabara be the author of the other, shorter 
poems that accompany the " Book of Delight " In 
the Constantinople edition, though they are not 
Incorporated Into the main work, we have a further 
Indication that Zabara was a medical man. There 
Is a satirical Introduction against the doctors that 
slay a man before his time. The author, with mock 
timidity, explains that he withholds his name, lest 
the medical profession turn Its attention to him with 
fatal results. '' Never send for a doctor," says the 
satirist, " for one cannot expect a miracle to hap- 
pen." It Is Important, for our understanding of 
another feature In Zabara's work, to observe that 
his Invective, directed against the practitioners 
rather than the science of medicine, is not more 
curious as coming from a medical man, than are the 
attacks on women perpetrated by some Jewish poets 
(Zabara among them), who themselves amply ex- 

13 



" THE BOOK OF DELIGHT " 

perienced, in their own and their community's life, 
the tender and beautiful relations that subsist 
between Jewish mother and son, Jewish wife and 
husband. 

The life of Joseph ben Me'ir Zabara was not 
happy. He left Barcelona in search of learning 
and comfort. He found the former, but the latter 
eluded him. It is hard to say from the '' Book of 
Delight " whether he was a woman-hater, or not. 
On the one hand, he says many pretty things about 
women. The moral of the first section of the 
romance is: Put your trust in women; and the 
moral of the second section of the poem is : A good 
woman is the best part of man. But, though this 
is so, Zabara does undoubtedly quote a large num- 
ber of stories full of point and sting, stories that 
tell of women's wickedness and infidelity, of their 
weakness of intellect and fickleness of will. His 
philogynist tags hardly compensate for his misogy- 
nist satires. He runs with the hare, but hunts ener- 
getically with the hounds. 

It is this characteristic of Zabara's method that 
makes it open to doubt, whether the additional 
stories referred to as printed with the Constanti- 
nople edition did really emanate from our author's 
pen. These additions are sharply misogynist; the 

14 



B:E book of DELIGHT" 

sven attempt to blunt their point 
The Widow's Vow " (the widow, 
ing constancy to her first love, eag- 
er) and '' Woman's Contentions." 
acked woman is denounced with the 
e. She has demoniac traits; her 
A. condemned criminal is offered his 
^ed a wicked woman. " O King,'* 
me; for rather would I die once, 
y deaths every day." Again, once 
n pursued a heroic man. He met 
' What are you running from ? " 
Vom a wicked woman," he answered, 
d and ran away with him. 
onger story m .y be summarized 
guised in hun-.an shape, met a fugi- 
10 had left his wicked wife. Satan 
: was in similar case, and proposed 
an would enter into the bodies of 
ler, pretending to be a skilful phy- 
:orcise Satan. They would share 
tan begins on the king, and the 
the confederate to cure the king 
IS, for a large fee, but in case of 
ir is to die. Satan refuses to come 
n is to get the doctor killed in this 
15 



" THE BOOK OF DELIGt 

perienced, in their own and their o 
the tender and beautiful relatio 
between Jewish mother and son, J 
husband. 

The life of Joseph ben Mei'r 
happy. He left Barcelona in se? 
and comfort. He found the form 
eluded him. It is hard to say froi 
Delight " whether he was a wom; 
On the one hand, he says many pn 
women. The moral of the first 
romance is: Put your trust in y 
moral of the second section of the ] 
woman is the best part of man. 
is so, Zabara does undoubtedly qu 
ber of stories full of point and s 
tell of women's wickedness and ir 
weakness of intellect and ficklene 
philogynist tags hardly compensat 
nist satires. He runs with the har 
getically with the hounds. 

It is this characteristic of Zaba 
makes it open to doubt, whethe 
stories referred to as printed wit 
nople edition did really emanate f 
pen. These additions are sharpl; 

14 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

poet does not even attempt to blunt their point. 
They include '' The Widow's Vow " (the widow, 
protesting undying constancy to her first love, eag- 
erly weds another) and " Woman's Contentions." 
In the latter, a wicked woman is denounced with the 
wildest invective. She has demoniac traits; her 
touch is fatal. A condemned criminal is offered his 
life if he will wed a wicked woman. " O King," 
he cried, " slay me; for rather would I die once, 
than suffer many deaths every day." Again, once 
a wicked woman pursued a heroic man. He met 
some devils. "What are you running from?'* 
asked they. " From a wickedwoman," he answered. 
The devils turned and ran away with him. 

One rather longer story m .y be summarized 
thus: Satan, disguised in hurr-^in shape, met a fugi- 
tive husband, who had left his wicked wife. Satan 
told him that he was in similar case, and proposed 
a compact. Satan would enter into the bodies of 
men, and the other, pretending to be a skilful phy- 
sician, would exorcise Satan. They would share 
the profits. Satan begins on the king, and the 
queen engages the confederate to cure the king 
within three days, for a large fee, but in case of 
failure the doctor is to die. Satan refuses to come 
out ; his real plan is to get the doctor killed in this 

15 



" THE BOOK OF DELIGHT " 

way. The doctor obtains a respite, and collects a 
large body of musicians, who make a tremendous 
dli). Satan trembles. '* What Is that noise? " he 
asks. " Your wife Is coming," says the doctor. 
Out sprang Satan and fled to the end of the earth. 
These tales and quips, It Is true, are directed 
against " wicked " women, but If Zabara really 
wrote them. It would be difficult to acquit him of 
woman-hatred, unless the stories have been mis- 
placed, and should appear, as part of the " Book 
of Delight," within the Leopard section, which 
rounds off a series of unfriendly tales with a moral 
friendly to woman. In general, Oriental satire 
directed against women must not be taken too seri- 
ously. As Giidemann has shown, the very Jews 
that wrote most bitterly of women were loud in 
praise of their own wives — the women whom alone 
they knew Intimately. Woman was the standing 
butt for men to hurl their darts at, and one cannot 
help feeling that a good deal of the fun got Its 
point from the knowledge that the charges were 
exaggerated or untrue. You find the Jewish satir- 
ists exhausting all their stores of drollery on the 
subject of rollicking drunkenness. They roar till 
their sides creak over the humor of the wine-bibber. 
They laugh at him and with him. They turn again 

16 



" THE BOOK OF DELIGHT " 

and again to the subject, which shares the empire 
with women in the Jewish poets. Yet we know 
well enough that the writers of these Hebrew 
Anacreontic lyrics were sober men, who rarely in- 
dulged in overmuch strong drink. In short, the 
medieval Jewish satirists were gifted with much of 
what a little time ago was foolishly styled " the 
new humor." Joseph Zabara was a " new " hu- 
morist. Fie has the quaint subtlety of the author 
of the " Ingoldsby Legends," and revelled in the 
exaggeration of trifles that is the stock-in-trade of 
the modern funny man. Woman plays the part with 
the former that the mother-in-law played a genera- 
tion ago with the latter. In Zabara, again, there is 
a good deal of mere rudeness, which the author 
seems to mistake for cutting repartee. This, I take 
it, is another characteristic of the so-called new 
humor. 

• The probable explanation of the marked diver- 
gence between Zabara's stories and the moral he 
draws from them lies, however, a little deeper. 
The stories themselves are probably Indian in ori- 
gin; hence they are marked by the tone hostile to 
woman so characteristic of Indian folk-lore. On 
the other hand. If Zabara himself was a friendly 
critic of woman, his own moralizings in her favor 
2 17 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

are explained. This theory is not entirely upset by 
the presence even of the additional stories, for 
these, too, are translations, and Zabara cannot be 
held responsible for their contents. The selection 
of good anecdotes was restricted in his day within 
very narrow limits. 

Yet Zabara's reading must have been extensive. 
He knew something of astronomy, philosophy, the 
science of physiognomy, music, mathematics, and 
physics, and a good deal of medicine. He was 
familiar with Arabian collections' of proverbs and 
tales, for he informs his readers several times that 
he is drawing on Arabic sources. He knew the 
*' Choice of Pearls," the Midrashic " Stories of 
King Solomon," the " Maxims of the Philoso- 
phers," the "Proverbs of the Wise"; but not 
" Sendabar " in its Hebrew form. His acquain- 
tance with the language of the Bible was thor- 
ough ; but he makes one or two blunders in quoting 
the substance of Scriptural passages. Though he 
disclaimed the title of a Talmudic scholar, he was 
not ignorant of the Rabbinic literature. Everyone 
quotes it: the fox, the woman, Enan, and the au- 
thor. He was sufficiently at home in this litera- 
ture to pun therein. He also knew the story of 
Tobit, but, as he introduces it as " a most marvel- 

18 



" THE BOOK OF DELIGHT " 

lous tale," it is clear that this book of the Apoc- 
rypha was not widely current in his day. The 
story, as Zabara tells it, differs considerably from 
the Apocryphal version of it. The incidents are 
misplaced, the story of the betrothal is disconnected 
from that of the recovery of the money by Tobit, 
and the detail of the gallows occurs in no other 
known text of the story. In one point, Zabara's 
version strikingly agrees with the Hebrew and 
Chaldee texts of Tobit as against the Greek; 
Tobit's son is not accompanied by a dog on his 
journey to recover his father's long-lost treasure. 

One of the tales told by Zabara seems to imply 
a phenomenon of the existence of which there is no 
other evidence. There seems to have been in Spain 
a small class of Jews that were secret converts to 
Christianity. They passed openly for Jews, but 
were in truth Christians. The motive for the con- 
cealment is unexplained, and the whole passage may 
be merely satirical. 

It remains for me to describe the texts now ex- 
tant of the ''Book of Delight." In 1865 the 
" Book of Delight " appeared, from a fifteenth 
century manuscript in Paris, In the second volume of 
a Hebrew periodical called the Lebanon. In the 
following year the late Senior Sachs wrote an intro- 

19 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

duction to It and to two other publications, which 
were afterwards issued together under the title Yen 
Lebanon (Paris, 1866). The editor was aware of 
the existence of another text, but, strange to tell, he 
did not perceive the need of examining it. Had he 
done this, his edition would have been greatly im- 
proved. For the Bodleian Library possesses a 
copy of another edition of the '' Book of Delight," 
undated, and without place of issue, but printed 
in Constantinople, in 1577. One or two other 
copies of this edition are extant elsewhere. The 
editor was Isaac Akrish, as we gather from a mar- 
ginal note to the version of Tobit given by Joseph 
Zabara. This Isaac Akrish was a travelling book- 
seller, who printed interesting little books, and 
hawked them about. Dr. Steinschneider points out 
that the date of Isaac Akrish's edition can be ap- 
proximately fixed by the type. The type is that of 
the Jaabez Press, established in Constantinople and 
Salonica in 1560. This Constantinople edition is 
not only longer than the Paris edition, it is, on the 
whole, more accurate. The verbal variations be- 
tween the two editions are extremely numerous, but 
the greater accuracy of the Constantinople edition 
shows Itself In many ways. The rhymes are much 
better preserved, though the Paris edition Is occa- 

20 



" THE BOOK OF DELIGHT " 

sionally superior In this respect. But many pas- 
sages that are quite unintelligible in the Paris edi- 
tion are clear enough in the Constantinople edition. 

The gigantic visitor of Joseph, the narrator, the 
latter undoubtedly the author himself. Is a strange 
being. Like the guide of Gil Bias on his adventures, 
he is called a demon, and he glares and emits smoke 
and fire. But he proves amenable to argument, and 
quotes the story of the washerwoman, to show how 
It was that he became a reformed character. This 
devil quotes the Rabbis, and Is easily convinced that 
It is unwise for him to wed an Ignorant bride. It 
would seem as though Zabara were, on the one 
hand, hurling a covert attack against some one who 
had advised him to leave Barcelona to his own 
hurt, while, on the other hand, he Is satirizing the 
current beliefs of Jews and Christians in evil spirits. 
More than one passage is decidedly anti-Christian, 
and It would not be surprising to find that the frame- 
work of the romance had been adopted with polemic 
Intention. 

The character of the framework becomes more 
Interesting when It Is realized that Zabara derived 
It from some version of the legends of which King 
Solomon Is the hero. The king had various adven- 
tures with a being more or less demoniac In charac- 

21 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

ter, who bears several names: Asmodeus, Saturn, 
Marcolf , or Morolf. That the model for Zabara's 
visitor was Solomon's interlocutor, is not open to 
doubt. The Solomon legend occurs in many forms, 
but In all Marcolf (or whatever other name he 
bears) is a keen contcster with the king In a battle 
of wits. No doubt, at first Marcolf filled a serious, 
respectable role ; in course of time, his character de- 
generated Into that of a clown or buffoon. It Is 
difficult to summarize the legend. It varies so con- 
siderably In the versions. Marcolf in the best- 
known forms, which are certainly older than Za- 
bara, is " right rude and great of body, of visage 
greatly misshapen and foul." Sometimes he is a 
dwarf, sometimes a giant; he Is never normal. He 
appears with his counterpart, a sluttish wife, before 
Solomon, who, recognizing him as famous for his 
wit and wisdom, challenges him to a trial of wis- 
dom, promising great rewards as the prize of vic- 
tory. The two exchange a series of questions and 
answers, which may be compared In spirit, though 
not in actual content, with the questions and an- 
swers to be found In Zabara. Marcolf succeeds in 
thoroughly tiring out the king, and though the 
courtiers are for driving Marcolf off with scant 
courtesy, the king Interposes, fulfils his promise, 

22 



" THE BOOK OF DELIGHT " 

and dismisses his adversary with gifts. Marcolf 
leaves the court, according to one version, with the 
noble remark, Ubi non est lex, ibi non est rex. 

This does not exhaust the story, however. In 
another part of the legend, to which, again, Za- 
bara offers parallels, Solomon, being out hunting, 
comes suddenly on Marcolf's hut, and, calling 
upon him, receives a number of riddling answers, 
which completely foil him, and for the solution of 
which he is compelled to have recourse to the pro- 
poser. He departs, however. In good humor, de- 
siring Marcolf to come to court the next day and 
bring a pall of fresh milk and curds from the cow. 
Marcolf fails, and the king condemns him to sit up 
all night In his company, threatening him with 
death In the morning, should he fall asleep. This, 
of course, Marcolf does immediately, and he snores 
aloud. Solomon asks, " Sleepest thou?" — And 
Marcolf replies, " No, I think." — '' What thinkest 
thou? " — " That there are as many vertebrae in the 
hare's tail as In his backbone." — The king, assured 
that he has now entrapped his adversary, replies: 
" If thou provest not this, thou diest In the morn- 
ing! " Over and over again Marcolf snores, and 
Is awakened by Solomon, but he is always think- 
ing. He gives various answers during the night: 

23 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

There are as many white feathers as black In the 
magpie. — There Is nothing whiter than daylight, 
daylight Is whiter than milk. — Nothing can be 
safely entrusted to a woman. — Nature Is stronger 
than education. 

Next day Marcolf proves all his statements. 
Thus, he places a pan of milk In a dark closet, and 
suddenly calls the king. Solomon steps Into the 
milk, splashes himself, and nearly falls. " Son of 
perdition! what does this mean? " roars the mon- 
arch. '' May It please Your Majesty," says Mar- 
colf, " merely to show you that milk Is not whiter 
than daylight." That nature Is stronger than edu- 
cation, Marcolf proves by throwing three mice, 
one after the other, before a cat trained to hold a 
lighted candle In Its paws during the klng^s sup- 
per; the cat drops the taper, and chases the mice. 
Marcolf further enters Into a bitter abuse of 
womankind, and ends by Inducing Solomon him- 
self to join in the diatribe. When the king per- 
ceives the trick, he turns Marcolf out of court, and 
eventually orders him to be hanged. One favor is 
granted to him : he may select his own tree. Mar- 
colf and his guards traverse the valley of Jehosha- 
phat, pass to Jericho over Jordan, through Arabia 
and the Red Sea, but " never more could Marcolf 

24 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

find a tree that he would choose to hang on." By 
this device, Marcolf escapes from Solomon's hands, 
returns home, and passes the rest of his days In 
peace. 

The legend, no doubt Oriental In origin, enjoyed 
popularity In the Middle Ages largely because it 
became the frame Into which could be placed col- 
lections of proverbial lore. Hence, as happened 
also with the legend of the Queen of Sheba and her 
riddles, the versions vary considerably as to the 
actual content of the questions and answers ban- 
died between Solomon and Marcolf. In the Ger- 
man and English versions, the proverbs and 
wisdom are largely Teutonic; In Zabara they are 
Oriental, and, in particular, Arabic. Again, Mar- 
colf In the French version of Mauclerc is much 
more completely the reviler of woman. Mauclerc 
wrote almost contemporaneously with Zabara 
(about 12 1 6-1 220, according to Kemble). But, 
on the other hand, Mauclerc has no story, and his 
Marcolf Is a punning clown rather than a cunning 
sage. Marcolf, who Is Solomon's brother In a 
German version, has no trust in a woman even 
when dead. So, In another version, Marcolf is at 
once supernaturally cunning, and extremely skepti- 
cal as to the morality and constancy of woman. But 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

It is unnecessary to enter into the problem more 
closely. Suffice it to have established that in Za- 
bara's '' Book of Delight " we have a hitherto un- 
suspected adaptation of the Solomon-Marcolf 
legend. Zabara handles the legend with rare origi- 
nality, and even ventures to cast himself for the 
title role in place of the wisest of kings. 

In the summary of the book which follows, the 
rhymed prose of the original Hebrew is reproduced 
only in one case. This form of poetry is unsuited 
to the English language. What may have a strik- 
ingly pleasing effect in Oriental speech, becomes, 
in English, indistinguishable from doggerel. I 
have not translated at full length, but I have endeav- 
ored to render Zabara accurately, without intro- 
ducing thoughts foreign to him. 

I have not thought it necessary to give elaborate 
parallels to Zabara's stories, nor to compare mi- 
nutely the various details of the Marcolf legend 
with Zabara's poem. On the whole, it may be said 
that the parallel is general rather than specific. I 
am greatly mistaken, however, if the collection of 
stories that follows does not prove of considerable 
interest to those engaged in the tracking of fables 
to their native lairs. Here, in Zabara, we have an 
earlier instance than was previously known in Eu- 

26 



" THE BOOK OF DELIGHT " 

rope, of an Intertwined series of fables and witti- 
cisms, partly Indian, partly Greek, partly Semitic, in 
origin, welded together by the Hebrew poet by 
means of a framework. The use of the framework 
by a writer in Europe In the year 1 200 is itself note- 
worthy. And when it Is remembered what the 
framework is, It becomes obvious that the " Book of 
Delight " occupies a unique position in medieval 
literature. 

THE GIANT GUEST 
Once on a night, I, Joseph, lay upon my bed; sleep was sweet 
upon me, my one return for all my toil. Things there are which 
weary the soul and rest the body, others that weary the body 
and rest the soul, but sleep brings calm to the body and the 
soul at once. . . . While I slept, I dreamt; and a gigantic but 
manlike figure appeared before me, rousing me from my slumber. 
*' Arise, thou sleeper, rouse thyself and see the wine while it is 
red; come, sit thee down and eat of what I provide." It was 
dawn when I hastily rose, and I saw before me wine, bread, and 
viands; and in the man's hand was a lighted lamp, which cast 
a glare Into every corner. I said, " What are these, my master ? " 
" My wine, my bread, my viands ; come, eat and drink with me, 
for I love thee as one of my mother's sons." And I thanked him, 
but protested : " I cannot eat or drink till I have prayed to the 
Orderer of all my ways; for Moses, the choice of the prophets, 
and the head of those called, hath ordained, * Eat not with the 
blood ' ; therefore no son .of Israel will eat until he prays for his 

soul, for the blood is the soul " 

27 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

Then said he, " Pray, if such be thy wish " ; and I bathed my 
hands and face, and prayed. Then I ate of all that was before 

me, for my soul loved him Wine I would not drink, 

though he pressed me sore. " Wine," I said, " blindeth the eyes, 
robbeth the old of wisdom and the body of strength, it revealeth 
the secrets of friends, and raiseth dissension between brothers." 
The man's anger was roused. " Why blasphemest thou against 
wine, and bearest false witness against it? Wine bringeth joy; 
sorrow and sighing fly before it. It strengtheneth the body, 
maketh the heart generous, prolongeth pleasure, and deferreth 
age; faces It maketh shine, and the senses it maketh bright." 

" Agreed, but let thy servant take the water first, as the ancient 
physicians advise; later I will take the wine, a little, without 
water." 

When I had eaten and drunk with him, I asked for his name 
and his purpose. " I come," said he, " from a distant land, from 
pleasant and fruitful hills, my wisdom Is as thine, my laws as 
thine, my name Enan Hanatash, the son of Arnan ha-Desh." I 
was amazed at the name, unlike any I had ever heard. '* Come 
with me from this land, and I will tell thee all my secret lore; 
leave this spot, for they know not here thy worth and thy wis- 
dom. I will take thee to another place, pleasant as a garden, 
peopled by loving men, wise above all others." But I answered: 
" My lord, I cannot go. Here are many wise and friendly ; 
while I live, they bear me on the wing of their love; when I 

die, they will make my death sweet I fear thee for thy 

long limbs, and In thy face I see, clear-cut, the marks of un- 
worthiness; I fear thee, and I will not be thy companion, lest 
there befall me what befell the leopard with the fox." And I 
told him the story. 

28 



" THE BOOK OF DELIGHT " 

In this manner, Illustrative tales are Introduced 
throughout the poem. Zabara displays rare Inge- 
nuity In fitting the Illustrations into his framework. 
He proceeds : 

THE FOX AND THE LEOPARD 
A leopard once lived in content and plenty; ever he found 
easy sustenance for his wife and children. Hard by there dwelt 
his neighbor and friend, the fox. The fox felt in his heart that 
his life was safe only so long as the leopard could catch other 
prey, and he planned out a method for ridding himself of this 
dangerous friendship. Before the evil cometh, say the wise, 
counsel is good. " Let me move him hence," thought the fox ; 
** I will lead him to the paths of death ; for the sages say, ' If 
one come to slay thee, be beforehand with him, and slay him 
instead.' " Next day the fox went to the leopard, and told him 
of a spot he had seen, a spot of gardens and lilies, where fawns 
and does disported themselves, and everything was fair. The 
leopard went with him to behold this paradise, and rejoiced 
with exceeding joy. ** Ah," thought the fox, " many a smile ends 
in a tear." But the leopard was charmed, and wished to move 
to this delightful abode ; '* but, first," said he, " I will go to 
consult my wife, my lifelong comrade, the bride of my youth." 
The fox was sadly disconcerted. Full well he knew the wisdom 
and the craft of the leopard's wife. " Nay," said he, " trust not 
thy wife. A woman's counsel is evil and foolish, her heart hard 
like marble; she is a plague In a house. Yes, ask her advice, 
and do the opposite." .... The leopard told his wife that he 
was resolved to go. " Beware of the fox," she exclaimed ; " two 
small animals there are, the craftiest they, by far — the serpent 

29 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

and the fox. Hast thou not heard how the fox bound the lion 
and slew him with cunning?" "How did the fox dare," asked 
the leopard, " to come near enough to the lion to do it? " 

The wife than takes up the parable, and cites the 
incident of 

THE FOX AND THE LION 
Then said the leopard's wife: The lion loved the fox, but 
the fox had no faith in him, and plotted his death. One day 
the fox went to the lion whining that a pain had seized him in 
the head. " I have heard," said the fox, " that physicians pre- 
scribe for a headache, that the patient shall be tied up hand and 
foot." The lion assented, and bound up the fox with a cord. 
"Ah," blithely said the fox, "my pain is gone." Then the 
lion loosed him. Time passed, and the lion's turn came to suffer 
in his head. In sore distress he went to the fox, fast as a 
bird to the snare, and exclaimed, " Bind me up, brother, that 
I, too, may be healed, as happened with thee." The fox took 
fresh withes, and bound the Hon up. Then he went to fetch 
great stones, which he cast on the lion's head, and thus crushed 
him. " Therefore, my dear leopard," concluded his wife, " trust 
not the fox, for I fear him and his wiles. If the place he tells 
of be so fair, why does not the fox take it for himself?" " Nay," 
said the leopard, " thou art a silly prattler. I have often proved 
my friend, and there is no dross in the silver of his love." 

The leopard would not hearken to his wife^s ad- 
vice, yet he was somewhat moved by her warning, 
and he told the fox of his misgiving, adding, that 
his wife refused to accompany him. " Ah," re- 

30 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

plied the fox, " I fear your fate will be like the 
silversmith's; let me tell you his story, and you will 
know how silly it is to listen to a wife's counsel." 

THE SILVERSMITH WHO FOLLOWED HIS WIFE'S 
COUNSEL 

A silversmith of Babylon, skilful in his craft, was one day 
at work. " Listen to me," said his wife, " and I will make thee 
rich and honored. Our lord, the king, has an only daughter, 
and he loves her as his life. Fashion for her a silver image of 
herself, and I will bear it to her as a gift." The statue was 
soon made, and the princess rejoiced at seeing it. She gave a 
cloak and earrings to the artist's wife, and she showed them to 
her husband in triumph. " But where is the wealth and the 
honor ? " he asked. " The statue was worth much more than 
thou hast brought." Next day the king saw the statue in his 
daughter's hand, and his anger was kindled. " Is it not ordered," 
he cried, "that none should make an image? Cut off his right 
hand." The king's command was carried out, and daily the 
smith wept, and exclaimed, "Take warning from me, ye hus- 
bands, and obey not the voice of your wives." 

The leopard shuddered when he heard this tale ; 
but the fox went on : 

THE WOODCUTTER AND THE WOMAN 

A hewer of wood in Damascus was cutting logs, and his 
wife sat spinning by his side. " My departed father," she 
said, " was a better workman than thou. He could chop with 
both hands: when the right hand was tired, he used the left." 

31 



" THE BOOK OF DELIGHT " 

" Nay," said he, " no woodcutter does that, he uses his right 
hand, unless he be a left-handed man." " Ah, my dear," she 
entreated, " try and do it as my father did." The witless wight 
raised his left hand to hew the wood, but struck his right-hand 
thumb instead. Without a word he took the axe and smote 
her on the head, and she died. His deed was noised about; the 
woodcutter was seized and stoned for his crime. Therefore, 
continued the fox, I say unto thee, all women are deceivers 
and trappers of souls. And let me tell you more of these wily 
stratagems. 

The fox reinforces his argument by relating an 
episode in which a contrast is drawn between 

MAN'S LOVE AND WOMAN'S 
A king of the Arabs, wise and well-advised, was one day 
seated with his counsellors, who were loud in the praise of 
women, lauding their virtues and their wisdom. " Cut short 
these words," said the king. " Never since the world began has 
there been a good woman. They love for their own ends." 
" But," pleaded his sages, " O King, thou art hasty. Women there 
are, wise and faithful and spotless, who love their husbands and 
tend their children." "Then," said the king, "here is my city 
before you: search it through, and find one of the good women 
of whom you speak." They sought, and they found a woman, 
chaste and wise, fair as the moon and bright as the sun, the 
wife of a wealthy trader; and the counsellors reported about her 
to the king. He sent for her husband, and received him with 
favor. " I have something for thy ear," said the king. " I have 
a good and desirable daughter: she is my only child; I will 
not give her to a king or a prince: let me find a simple, faithful 

32 



" THE BOOK OF DELIGHT " 

man, who will love her and hold her in esteem. Thou art such 
a one ; thou shalt have her. But thou art married : slay thy 
wife to-night, and to-morrow thou shalt wed my daughter." 
" I am unworthy," pleaded the man, " to be the shepherd of thy 
flock, much less the husband of thy daughter." But the king 
would take no denial. "But how shall I kill my wife? For 
fifteen years she has eaten of my bread and drunk of my cup. 
She is the joy of my heart; her love and esteem grow day by 
day." " Slay her," said the king, " and be king hereafter." He 
went forth from the presence, downcast and sad, thinking over, 
and a little shaken by, the king's temptation. At home he saw 
his wife and his two babes. " Better," he cried, " Is my wife 
than a kingdom. Cursed be all kings who tempt men to sip 
sorrow, calling it joy." The king waited his coming in vain ; 
and then he sent messengers to the man's shop. When he found 
that the man's love had conquered his lust, he said, with a sneer, 
" Thou art no man : thy heart is a woman's." 

In the evening the king summoned the woman secretly. She 
came, and the king praised her beauty and her wisdom. His 
heart, he said, was burning with love for her, but he could not 
wed another man's wife. " Slay thy husband to-night, and to- 
morrow be my queen." With a smile, the woman consented; 
and the king gave her a sword made of tin, for he knew the 
weak mind of woman. " Strike once," he said to her ; " the 
sword is sharp; you need not essay a second blow." She gave 
her husband a choice repast, and wine to make him drunken. As 
he lay asleep, she grasped the sword and struck him on the 
head; and the tin bent, and he awoke. With some ado she 
quieted him, and he fell asleep again. Next morning the king 
summoned her, and asked whether she had obeyed his orders. 
3 33 



" THE BOOK OF DELIGHT " 

" Yes," said she, " but thou didst frustrate thine own counsel." 
Then the king assembled his sages, and bade her tell all that 
she had attempted; and the husband, too, was fetched, to tell 
his story. " Did I not tell you to cease your praises of women ? " 
asked the king, triumphantly. 

In Dispraise of Woman 

The fox follows up these effective narratives 
with a lengthy string of well-worn quotations 
against women, of which the following are a few : 
Socrates, the wise and saintly, hated and despised 
them. His wife was thin and short. They asked 
him, ** How could a man like you choose such a 
woman for your wife? " " I chose," said Socrates, 
" of the evil the least possible amount." " Why, 
then, do you look on beautiful women? " " Nei- 
ther," said Socrates, " from love nor from desire, 
but to admire the handiwork of God in their out- 
ward form. It is within that they are foul." Once 
he was walking by the way, and he saw a woman 
hanging from a fig-tree. " Would," said Socrates, 
" that all the fruit were like this." — A nobleman 
built a new house, and wrote over the door, '* Let 
nothing evil pass this way." " Then how does his 
wife go in?" asked Diogenes. — "Your enemy is 
dead," said one to another. " I would rather hear 
that he had got married," was the reply. 

34 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

*' So much," said the fox to the leopard, " I 
have told thee that thou mayest know how little 
women are to be trusted. They deceive men in 
life, and betray them in death." " But," queried 
the leopard, " what could my wife do to harm me 
after I am dead? " " Listen," rejoined the fox, 
" and I will tell thee of a deed viler than any I 
have narrated hitherto." 

THE WIDOW AND HER HUSBAND'S CORPSE 
The kings of Rome, when they hanged a man, denied him 
burial until the tenth day. That the friends and relatives of the 
victim might not steal the body, an officer of high rank was set 
to watch the tree by night. If the body was stolen, the officer 
was hung up in its place. A knight of high degree once rebelled 
against the king, and he was hanged on a tree. The officer on 
guard was startled at midnight to hear a piercing shriek of 
anguish from a little distance; he mounted his horse, and rode 
towards the voice, to discover the meaning. He came to an 
open grave, where the common people were buried, and saw a 
weeping woman loud in laments for her departed spouse. He 
sent her home with words of comfort, accompanying her to the 
city gate. He then returned to his post. Next night the same 
scene was repeated, and as the officer spoke his gentle soothings 
to her, a love for him was born in her heart, and her dead 
husband was forgotten. And as they spoke words of love, they 
neared the tree, and lo! the body that the officer was set to 
watch was gone. " Begone," he said, " and I will fly, or my life 
must pay the penalty of my dalliance." " Fear not, my lord," 

85 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

she said, " we can raise my husband from his grave and hang 
him instead of the stolen corpse." " But I fear the Prince of 
Death. I cannot drag a man from his grave." " I alone will 
do it then," said the woman; "I will dig him out; it is lawful 
to cast a dead man from the grave, to keep a live man from 
being thrown in." '' Alas ! " cried the officer, when she had 
done the fearsome deed, " the corpse I watched was bald, your 
husband has thick hair ; the change will be detected." " Nay," 
said the woman, " I will make him bald," and she tore his hair 
out, with execrations, and they hung him on the tree. But a 
few days passed and the pair were married. 

And now the leopard interlude nears it close. 
Zabara narrates the denouement in these terms: 

THE LEOPARD'S FATE 
The leopard's bones rattled while he listened to this tale. 
Angrily he addressed his wife, " Come, get up and follow me, 
or I will slay thee." Together they went with their young ones, 
and the fox was their guide, and they reached the promised place, 
and encamped by the waters. The fox bade them farewell, his 
head laughing at his tail. Seven days were gone, when the 
rains descended, and in the deep of the night the river rose 
and engulfed the leopard family in their beds. " Woe is me," 
sighed the leopard, " that I did not listen to my wife." And 
he died before his time. 

The Journey Begun by Joseph and Enan 

The author has now finished his protest against 
his visitor's design, to make him join him on a rov- 

36 



" THE BOOK OF DELIGHT " 

Ing expedition. Enan glares, and asks, " Am I a 
fox, and thou a leopard, that I should fear thee? " 
Then his note changes, and his tone becomes coax- 
ing and bland. Joseph cannot resist his fascina- 
tion. Together they start, riding on their asses. 
Then says Enan unto Joseph, '^ Carry thou me, or 
I will carry thee." " But," continues the narra- 
tor, Joseph, " we were both riding on our asses. 
* What dost thou mean? Our asses carry us 
both. Explain thy words.' — ' It is the story of 
the peasant with the king's officer.' " 

THE CLEVER GIRL AND THE KING'S DREAM 

A king with many wives dreamt that he saw a monkey among 
them ; his face fell, and his spirit was troubled. " This is none 
other," said he, " than a foreign king, who will invade my 
realm, and take my harem for his spoil." One of his officers 
told the king of a clever interpreter of dreams, and the king 
despatched him to find out the meaning of his ominous vision. 
He set forth on his mule, and met a countryman riding. " Carry 
me," said the officer, " or I will carry thee." The peasant was 
amazed. " But our asses carry us both," he said. " Thou tiller 
of the earth," said the officer, " thou art earth, and eatest earth. 
There is snow on the hill," continued the officer, and as the month 
was Tammuz, the peasant laughed. They passed a road with 
wheat growing on each side. "A horse blind in one eye has 
passed here," said the officer, " loaded with oil on one side, and 
with vinegar on the other," They saw a field richly covered 

37 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

with abounding corn, and the peasant praised it. "Yes," said 
the officer, " if the corn is not already eaten." They went on 
a little further and saw a lofty tower. "Well fortified," re- 
marked the peasant. " Fortified without, if not ruined within," 
replied the officer. A funeral passed them. "As to this old 
man whom they are burying," said the officer, " I cannot tell 
whether he is alive or dead." And the peasant thought his 
companion mad to make such unintelligible remarks. They 
neared a village where the peasant lived, and he invited the 
officer to stay with him overnight. 

The peasant, in the dead of the night, told his wife and daugh- 
ters of the foolish things the officer had said, though he looked 
quite wise. " Nay," said the peasant's youngest daughter, a 
maiden of fifteen years, " the man is no fool ; thou didst not 
comprehend the depth of his meaning. The tiller of the earth 
eats food grown from the earth. By the * snow on the hill ' is 
meant thy white beard (on thy head) ; thou shouldst have 
answered, ' Time caused it.' The horse blind in one eye he 
knew had passed, because he saw that the wheat was eaten on 
one side of the way, and not on the other; and as for Its burden, 
he saw that the vinegar had parched the dust, while the oil had 
not. His saying, * Carry me, or I will carry thee,' signifies that 
he who beguiles the way with stories and proverbs and riddles, 
carries his companion, relieving him from the tedium of the 
journey. The corn of the field you passed," continued the girl, 
" was already eaten if the owner was poor, and had sold it before 
It was reaped. The lofty and stately tower was In ruins within. 
If It was without necessary stores. About the funeral, too, his 
remark was true. If the old man left a son, he was still alive; 
if he was childless, he was. Indeed, dead." 

38 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

In the morning, the girl asked her father to give the officer 
the food she would prepare. She gave him thirty eggs, a dish 
full of milk, and a whole loaf. " Tell me," said she, " how 
many days old the month Is; is the moon new, and the sun at 
its zenith?" Her father ate two eggs, a little of the loaf, and 
sipped some of the milk, and gave the rest to the officer. " Tell 
thy daughter," he said, " the sun is not full, neither is the moon, 
for the month is two days old." " Ah," laughed the peasant, as 
he told his daughter the answers of the officer, " ah, my girl, 
I told you he was a fool, for we are now In the middle of 
the month." " Did you eat anything of what I gave you ? " 
asked the girl of her father. And he told her of the two eggs, 
the morsel of bread, and the sip of milk that he had taken. 
" Now I know," said the girl, " of a surety that the man is very 
wise." And the officer, too, felt that she was wise, and so he 
told her the king's dream. She went back with him to the king, 
for she told the officer that she could interpret the vision, but 
would do so only to the king in person, not through a deputy. 
" Search thy harem," said the girl, " and thou wilt find among 
thy women a man disguised in female garb." He searched, and 
found that her words were true. The man was slain, and the 
women, too, and the peasant's daughter became the king's sole 
queen, for he never took another wife besides her. 

The Night's Rest 

Thus Joseph and the giant Enan journey on, and 
they stay overnight In a village Inn. Then com- 
mences a series of seml-medlcal wrangles, which 
fill up a large portion of the book. Joseph de- 

89 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

mands food and wine, and Enan gives him a little 
of the former and none of the latter. " Be still,'' 
says Enan, " too much food is injurious to a trav- 
eller weary from the way. But you cannot be so 
very hungry, or you would fall to on the dry bread. 
But wine with its exciting qualities is bad for one 
heated by a long day's ride." Even their asses are 
starved, and Joseph remarks sarcastically,, " To- 
morrow It will be, indeed, a case of carry-thou-me- 
or-I-thee, for our asses will not be able to bear us." 
They sleep on the ground, without couch or cover. 
At dawn Enan rouses him, and when he sees that 
his ass is still alive, he exclaims, '' Man and beast 
thou savest, O Lord! " The ass, by the way, is a 
lineal descendant of Balaam's animal. 

They proceed, and the asses nod and bow as 
though they knew how to pray. Enan weeps as 
they near a town. " Here," says he, " my dear 
friend died, a man of wisdom and judgment. I 
will tell thee a little of his cleverness." 

THE DISHONEST SINGER AND THE WEDDING ROBES 
A man once came to him crying in distress. His only daughter 
was betrothed to a youth, and the bridegroom and his father 
came to the bride's house on the eve of the wedding, to view 
her ornaments and beautiful clothes. When the bride's parents 
rose next day, everything had vanished, jewels and trousseau 

40 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

together. They were in despair, for they had lavished all their 
possessions on their daughter. My friend [continued Enan] went 
back with the man to examine the scene of the robbery. The 
walls of the house were too high to scale. He found but one 
place where entry was possible, a crevice in a wall in which 
an orange tree grew, and its edge was covered with thorns and 
prickles. Next door lived a musician, Paltiel ben Agan [or Adan] 
by name, and my late friend, the judge, interviewed him, and 
made him strip. His body was covered with cuts and scratches; 
his guilt was discovered, and the dowry returned to the last shoe- 
iatchet. " My son," said he, " beware of singers, for they are 
mostly thieves; trust no word of theirs, for they are liars; they 
dally with women, and long after other people's money. They 
fancy they are clever, but they know not their left hand from 
their right; they raise their hands all day and call, but know 
not to whom. A singer stands at his post, raised above all other 
men, and he thinks he is as lofty as his place. He constantly 
emits sounds, which mount to his brain, and dry it up ; hence 
he is so witless." 

Then Enan tells Joseph another story of his 
friend the judge's sagacity: 

THE NOBLEMAN AND THE NECKLACE 

A man lived in Cordova, Jacob by name, the broker; he was 
a man of tried honesty. Once a jewelled necklet was entrusted 
to him for sale by the judge, the owner demanding five hundred 
pieces of gold as its price. Jacob had the chain in his hand 
when he met a nobleman, one of the king's intimate friends. The 
nobleman offered four hundred pieces for the necklet, which 
Jacob refused. " Come with me to my house, and I will consider 

41 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

the price," said the would-be purchaser. The Jew accompanied 
him home, and the nobleman went within. Jacob waited outside 
the gate till the evening, but no one came out. He passed a 
sleepless night with his wife and children, and next morning 
returned to the nobleman. " Buy the necklace," said he, " or 
return it." The nobleman denied all knowledge of the jewels, 
so Jacob went to the judge. He sent for the nobles, to address 
them as was his wont, and as soon as they had arrived, he 
said to the thief's servant, *' Take your master's shoe and go to 
his wife. Show the shoe and say. Your lord bids me ask you 
for the necklace he bought yesterday, as he wishes to exhibit 
its beauty to his friends." The wife gave the servant the orna- 
ment, the theft was made manifest, and it was restored to its 
rightful owner. 

And Enan goes on : 

THE SON AND THE SLAVE 
A merchant of measureless wealth had an only son, who, when 
he grew up, said, " Father, send me on a voyage, that I may 
trade and see foreign lands, and talk with men of wisdom, to 
learn from their words." The father purchased a ship, and 
sent him on a voyage, with much wealth and many friends. The 
father was left at home with his slave, in whom he put his 
trust, and who filled his son's place in position and affection. 
Suddenly a pain seized him in the heart, and he died without 
directing how his property was to be divided. The slave took 
possession of everything; no one in the town knew whether he 
was the man's slave or his son. Ten years passed, and the real 
son returned, with his ship laden with wealth. As they ap- 
proached the harbor, the ship was wrecked. They had cast 

42 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

everything overboard, in a vain effort to save it; finally, the crew 
and the passengers were all thrown into the sea. The son reached 
the shore destitute, and returned to his father's house; but the 
slave drove him away, denying his identity. They went before 
the judge. " Find the loathly merchant's grave," he said to the 
slave, " and bring me the dead man's bones. I shall burn them 
for his neglect to leave a will, thus rousing strife as to his prop- 
erty." The slave started to obey, but the son stayed him. " Keep 
all," said he, " but disturb not my father's bones." " Thou art 
the son," said the judge; "take this other as thy lifelong slave." 

Joseph and Enan pass to the city of Toblah. At 
the gate they are accosted by an old and venerable 
man, to whom they explain that they have been on 
the way for seven days. He Invites them to his 
home, treats them hospitably, and after supper tells 
them sweet and pleasant tales, " among his words 
an incident wonderful to the highest degree." 
This wonderful story Is none other than a distorted 
version of the Book of Toblt. I have translated 
this In full, and In rhymed prose, as a specimen of 
the original. 

THE STORY OF TOBIT 

Here, in the days of the saints of old, in the concourse of elders 
of age untold, there lived a man upright and true, in all his 
doings good fortune he knew. Rich was he and great, his eyes 
looked ever straight: Tobiah, the son of Ahiah, a man of Dan, 
helped the poor, to each gave of his store ; whene'er one friendless 

43 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

died, the shroud he supplied, bore the corpse to the grave, nor 
thought his money to save. The men of the place, a sin-ruled 
race, slandering, cried, " O King, these Jewish knaves open our 
graves ! Our bones they burn, into charms to turn, health to earn." 
The king angrily spoke: "I will weighten their yoke, and their 
villainy repay; all the Jews who, from to-day, die in this town, 
to the pit take down, to the pit hurry all, without burial. Who 
buries a Jew, the hour shall rue; bitter his pang, on the gallows 
shall he hang." Soon a sojourner did die, and no friends were 
by; but good Tobiah the corpse did lave, and dress it for the 
grave. Some sinners saw the deed, to the judge the word they 
gave, who Tobiah's death decreed. Forth the saint they draw, 
to hang him as by law. But now they near the tree, lo! no 
man can see, a blindness falls on all, and Tobiah flies their 
thrall. Many friends his loss do weep, but homewards he doth 
creep, God's mercies to narrate, and his own surprising fate, 
" Praise ye the Lord, dear friends, for His mercy never ends, 
and to His servants good intends." Fear the king distressed, 
his heart beat at his breast, new decrees his fear expressed. 
" Whoe'er a Jew shall harm," the king cried in alarm, " touching 
his person or personalty, touches the apple of my eye ; let no man 
do this wrong, or I'll hang him 'mid the throng, high though 
his rank, and his lineage long." And well he kept his word, 
he punished those who erred; but on the Jews his mercies shone, 
the while he filled the throne. 

Once lay the saint at rest, and glanced upon the nest of a 
bird within his room. Ah ! cruel was his doom ! Into his eye 
there went the sparrow's excrement. Tobiah's sight was gone ! 
He had an only son, whom thus he now addressed : " When busi- 
ness ventures pressed, I passed from clime to clime. Well I 

44 



" THE BOOK OF DELIGHT " 

recall the time, when long I dwelt in Ind, of wealth full stores 
to find. But perilous was the road, and entrusted I my load 
with one of honest fame. Peer Hazeman his name. And now 
list, beloved son, go out and hire thee one, thy steps forthwith 
to guide unto my old friend's side. I know his love's full 
stream, his trust he will redeem ; when heareth he my plight, 
when seeth he thy sight, then will he do the right." The youth 
found whom he sought, a man by travel taught, the ways of 
Ind he knew; he knew them through and through, he knew them 
up and down, as a townsman knows his town. He brought him 
to his sire, who straightway did inquire, " Knowest thou an 
Indian spot, a city named Tobot?" — "Full well I know the 
place, I spent a two years' space in various enterprise; its people 
all are wise, and honest men and true." — " What must I give 
to you," asked Tobiah of his guest, " to take my son in quest? " — 
" Of pieces pure of gold, full fifty must be told." — " I'll pay you 
that with joy; start forth now with my boy." A script the son 
did write, which Tobiah did indite, and on his son bestow a 
sign his friend would know. The father kissed his son, " In 
peace," said he, " get gone ; may God my life maintain till thou 
art come again." The youth and guide to Tobot hied, and 
reached anon Peer Hazeman. "Why askest thou my name?" 
Straight the answer came, " Tobiah Is my sire, and he doth 
inquire of thy health and thy household's." Then the letter 
he unfolds. The contents Peer espies, every doubt flies, he re- 
gards the token with no word spoken. " 'Tis the son of my 
friend, who greeting thus doth send. Is it well with him? 
Say." — "Well, well with him alway." — "Then dwell thou here 
a while, and hours sweet beguile with the tales which thou wilt 
tell of him I loved so well." — " Nay, I must forthwith part to 

45 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

soothe my father's heart. I am his only trust, return at once I 
must." Peer Hazeman agrees the lad to release; gives him all 
his father's loan, and gifts adds of his own, raiment and two 
slaves. To music's pleasant staves, the son doth homeward 
wend. By the shore of the sea went the lad full of glee, and the 
wind blew a blast, and a fish was upward cast. Then hastened 
the guide to ope the fish's side, took the liver and the gall, for 
cure of evil's thrall: liver to give demons flight, gall to restore 
men's sight. The youth begged his friend these specifics to lend, 
then went he on his way to where his sick sire lay. Then spake 
the youth to his father all the truth. " Send not away the guide 
without pay." The son sought the man, through the city he ran, 
but the man had disappeared. Said Tobiah, " Be not afeared, 
'twas Elijah the seer, whom God sent here to stand by our side, 
our needs to provide." He bathed both his eyes with the gall 
of the prize, and his sight was restored by the grace of the 
Lord. 

Then said he to his son, " Now God His grace has shown, 
dost thou not yearn to do a deed in turn? My niece forthwith 
wed." — " But her husbands three are dead, each gave up his 
life as each made her his wife; to her shame and to her sorrow, 
they survived not to the morrow." — " Nay, a demon is the doer of 
this harm to every wooer. My son, obey my wish, take the 
liver of the fish, and burn it in full fume, at the door of 
her room, 'twill give the demon his doom." At his father's 
command, with his life in his hand, the youth sought the maid, 
and wedded her unafraid. For long timid hours his prayer 
Tobiah pours; but the incense was alight, the demon took to 
flight, and safe was all the night. Long and happily wed, their 
lives sweetly sped. 

46 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

Their entertainer tells Joseph and Enan another 
story of piety connected with the burial of the dead : 

THE PARALYTIC'S TOUCHSTONE OF VIRTUE 
Once upon a time there lived a saintly man, whose abode 
was on the way to the graveyard. Every funeral passed his 
door, and he would ever rise and join in the procession, and 
assist those engaged in the burial. In his old age his feet were 
paralyzed, and he could not leave his bed; the dead passed his 
doors, and he sighed that he could not rise to display his wonted 
respect. Then prayed he to the Lord : " O Lord, who givest 
eyes to the blind and feet to the lame, hear me from the corner 
of my sorrowful bed. Grant that when a pious man is borne to 
his grave, I may be able to rise to my feet." An angel's voice in 
a vision answered him, " Lo, thy prayer is heard." And so, 
whenever a pious man was buried, he rose and prayed for his 
soul. On a day, there died one who had grown old in the 
world's repute, a man of excellent piety, yet the lame man could 
not rise as his funeral passed. Next day died a quarrelsome 
fellow, of ill fame for his notorious sins, and when his body 
was carried past the lame man's door, the paralytic was able to 
stand. Every one was amazed, for hitherto the lame man's 
rising or resting had been a gauge of the departed's virtue. Two 
sage men resolved to get to the bottom of the mystery. They in- 
terviewed the wife of the fellow who had died second. The 
wife confirmed the worst account of him, but added : " He had 
an old father, aged one hundred years, and he honored and 
served him. Every day he kissed his hand, gave him drink, 
stripped and dressed him when, from old age, he could not turn 
himself on his couch; daily he brought ox and lamb bones, from 

47 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

which he drew the marrow, and made dainty foods of it." And 
the people knew that honoring his father had atoned for his 
transgressions. Then the two inquisitors went to the house of the 
pious man, before whom the paralytic had been unable to rise. 
His widow gave him an excellent character; he was gentle and 
pious; prayed three times a day, and at midnight rose and went 
to a special chamber to say his prayers. No one had ever seen 
the room but himself, as he ever kept the key in his bosom. The 
two Inquisitors opened the door of this chamber, and found a 
small box hidden in the window-sill; they opened the box, and 
found in it a golden figure bearing a crucifix. Thus the man 
had been one of those who do the deeds of ZImrl, and expect the 
reward of Phineas. 

Table Talk 
Joseph and Enan then retire to rest, and their 
sleep Is sweet and long. By strange and devious 
ways they continue their journey on the morrow, 
starting at dawn. Again they pass the night at the 
house of one of Enan's friends, Rabbi Judah, a 
ripe old sage and hospitable, who welcomes them 
cordially, feeds them bountifully, gives them spiced 
dishes, wine of the grape and the pomegranate, and 
then tells stories and proverbs " from the books of 
the Arabs." 

A man said to a sage, " Thou braggest of thy wisdom, but It 
came from me." " Yes," replied the sage, " and it forgot its 
way back." — Who Is the worst of men? He who Is good in his 
own esteem. — Said a king to a sage, " Sweet would be a king's 

48 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

reign if it lasted forever." " Had such been your predecessor's 
lot," replied the wise man, " how would you have reached the 
throne?" — A man laid a complaint before the king; the latter 
drove the suppliant out with violence. " I entered with one com- 
plaint," sighed the man, "I leave with two." — What is style? 
Be brief and do not repeat yourself. — The king once visited 
a nobleman's house, and asked the latter's son, ** Whose house 
is better, your father's or mine ? " " My father's," said the boy, 
" while the king is in it." — A king put on a new robe, which did 
not become him. " It is not good to wear," said a courtier, " but 
it is good to put on." The king put the robe on him. — A bore 
visited a sick man. "What ails thee?" he asked. "Thy pres- 
ence," said the sufferer. — A man of high lineage abused a wise 
man of lowly birth. " My lineage Is a blot on me," retorted a 
sage, " thou art a blot on thy lineage." — To another who reviled 
him for his lack of noble ancestry, he retorted, " Thy noble line 
ends with thee, with me mine begins." — Diogenes and Dives 
were attacked by robbers. " Woe Is me," said Dives, " if they 
recognize me." " Woe is me," said Diogenes, " if they do not 
recognize me." — A philosopher sat by the target at which the 
archers were shooting. " 'Tis the safest spot," said he. — An 
Arab's brother died. " Why did he die ? " one asked. " Because 
he lived," was the answer. — " What hast thou laid up for the 
cold weather ? " they asked a poor fellow. " Shivering," he 
answered. — Death is the dread of the rich and the hope of the 
poor. — Which Is the best of the beasts? Woman. — Hide thy vir- 
tues as thou hidest thy faults.— A dwarf brought a complaint 
to his king. " No one," said the king, " would hurt such a 
pigmy." "But," retorted the dwarf, "my Injurer Is smaller than 
I am." — A dolt sat on a stone. " Lo, a blockhead on a block," 
4 49 



" THE BOOK OF DELIGHT " 

said the passers-by. — "What prayer make you by night?" they 
asked a sage. " Fear God by day, and by night you will sleep, 
not pray." — Rather a wise enemy than a foolish friend. — Not 
everyone who flees escapes, not everyone who begs has need. — 
A sage had weak eyes. " Heal them," said they. " To see 
what?" he rejoined. — A fool quarrelled with a sage. Said the 
former, " For every word of abuse I hear from thee, I will retort 
ten." " Nay," replied the other, " for every ten words of abuse 
I hear from thee, I will not retort one." — An honest man cannot 
catch a thief. — All things grow with time except grief. — The 
character of the sent tells the character of the sender. — What 
is man's best means of concealment ? Speech. — " Why walkest 
thou so slowly?" asked the lad of the greybeard. "My years 
are a chain to my feet: and thy years are preparing thy chain." — 
Do not swallow poison because you know an antidote. — ^The king 
heard a woman at prayer. " O God," she said, " remove this 
king from us." " And put a better in his stead," added the 
eavesdropping monarch. — Take measure for this life as though 
thou wilt live forever; prepare for the next world as though 
thou diest to-morrow. — " He will die," said the doctor, but the 
patient recovered. " You have returned from the other world," 
said the doctor v/hen he met the man. " Yes," said the latter, 
" and the doctors have a bad time there. But fear not. Thou 
art no doctor." — Three things weary: a lamp that will not 
burn, a messenger that dawdles, a table spread and waiting. 

Then follows a string of sayings about threes: 

Reason rules the body, wisdom is the pilot, law is its light. 
Might is the lion's, burdens are the ox's, wisdom is man's; 
spinning the spider's, building the bee's, making stores the ant's. 

50 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

In three cases lying is permissible : in war, in reconciling man to 
man, in appeasing one's wife. 

Their host concludes his lengthy list of senten- 
tious remarks thus : 

A king had a signet ring, on which were engraved the words, 
" Thou hast bored me : rise ! " and when a guest stayed too 
long, he showed the visitor the ring. — The heir of a wealthy 
man squandered his money, and a sage saw him eating bread 
and salted olives. " Hadst thou thought that this would be 
thy food, this would not be thy food." — Marry no widow. She 
will lament her first husband's death. 

The City of Enan 

This was the signal for the party to retire to 
rest. 

Next day the wayfarers reach Enan's own city, 
the place he had all along desired Joseph to see. 
He shows Joseph his house ; but the latter replies, 
" I crave food, not sight-seeing." " Surely," says 
Enan, " the more hurry the less speed." At last 
the table is spread; the cloth is ragged, the dishes 
contain unleavened bread, such as there is no pleas- 
ure in eating, and there is a dish of herbs and vine- 
gar. Then ensues a long wrangle, displaying much 
medical knowledge, on the physiology of herbs and 
vegetables, on the eating of flesh, much and fast. 

51 



" THE BOOK OF DELIGHT " 

Enan makes sarcastic remarks on Joseph's rapa- 
cious appetite. He tells Joseph, he must not eat 
this or that. A joint of lamb is brought on the 
table, Enan says the head is bad, and the feet, and 
the flesh, and the fat; so that Joseph has no alter- 
native but to eat it all. " I fear that what hap- 
pened to the king, will befall thee," said Enan. 
" Let me feed first," said Joseph; " then you can 
tell me what happened to the king." 

THE PRINCESS AND THE ROSE 
A gardener came to his garden in the winter. It was the 
month of Tebet, and he found some roses In flower. He re- 
joiced at seeing them; and he plucked them, and put them on 
a precious dish, carried them to the king, and placed them before 
him. The king was surprised, and the flowers were goodly in 
his sight; and he gave the gardener one hundred pieces of gold. 
Then said the king in his heart, " To-day we will make merry, 
and have a feast." All his servants and faithful ministers were 
invited to rejoice over the joy of the roses. And he sent for 
his only daughter, then with child ; and she stretched forth her 
hand to take a rose, and a serpent that lay in the dish leapt at 
her and startled her, and she died before night. 

Question and Answer 
But Joseph's appetite was not to be stayed by 
such tales as this. So Enan tells him of the " Lean 
Fox and the Hole " ; but in vain. *' Open not thy 

52 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

mouth to Satan," says Joseph. " I fear for my 
appetite, that It become smaller " ; and goes on 
eating. 

Now Enan tries another tack: he will question 
him, and put him through his paces. But Joseph 
yawns and protests that he has eaten too much to 
keep his eyes open. 

"How canst thou sleep," said Enan, " when thou hast eaten 
everything, fresh and stale? As I live, thou shalt not seek thy 
bed until I test thy wisdom — until I prove whether all this 
provender has entered the stomach of a wise man or a fool." 

Then follows an extraordinary string of ana- 
tomical, medical, scientific, and Talmudic ques- 
tions about the optic nerves; the teeth; why a man 
lowers his head when thinking over things he has 
never known, but raises his head when thinking 
over what he once knew but has forgotten; the 
physiology of the digestive organs, the physiology 
of laughter ; why a boy eats more than a man ; why 
it is harder to ascend a hill than to go down; why 
snow is white ; why babies have no teeth ; why chil- 
dren's first set of teeth fall out; why saddest tears 
are saltest; why sea water Is heavier than fresh; 
why hall descends In summer; why the sages said 
that bastards are mostly clever. To these ques- 
tions, which Enan pours out In a stream, Joseph 

53 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

readily gives answers. But now Enan is hoist with 
his own petard. 

" I looked at him," continues the poet, " and sleep entrapped 
his eyes, and his eyelids kissed the irides. Ah! I laughed in my 
heart. Now I will talk to him, and puzzle him as he has been 
puzzling me. He shall not sleep, as he would not let me sleep. 
* My lord,' said I, ' let me now question thee.' * I am sleepy,' 
said he, 'but ask on.' 'What subject shall I choose?' I said. 
'Any subject,' he replied; 'of all knowledge I know the half.'" 
Joseph asks him astronomical, musical, logical, arithmetical ques- 
tions ; to all of which Enan replies, " I do not know." " But," 
protests Joseph, " how couldst thou assert that thou knewest half 
of every subject, when it is clear thou knowest nothing?" 
" Exactly," says Enan, " for Aristotle says, * He who says, I 
do not know, has already attained the half of knowledge.' " 

But he says he knows medicine ; so Joseph pro- 
ceeds to question him. Soon he discovers that 
Enan is again deceiving him ; and he abuses Enan 
roundly for his duplicity. 

Enan at length is moved to retort. 

"I wonder at thy learning," says Enan, "but more at thy 
appetite." Then the lamp goes out, the servant falls asleep, and 
they are left in darkness till the morning. Then Joseph demands 
his breakfast, and goes out to see his ass. The ass attempts to 
bite Joseph, who strikes It, and the ass speaks. " I am one of 
the family of Balaam's ass," says the animal. "But I am not 
Balaam," says Joseph, "to divine that thou hast eaten nothing 
all night." The servant asserts that he fed the ass, but the 

54 



" THE BOOK OF DELIGHT " 

animal had gobbled up everything, his appetite being equal 
to his owner's. But Joseph will not believe this, and Enan is 
deeply hurt. " Peace ! " he shouts, and his eyes shoot flames, 
and his nostrils distil smoke. " Peace, cease thy folly, or, as I 
live, and my ancestor Asmodeus, I will seize thee with my little 
finger, and will show thee the city of David." 

In timid tones Joseph asks him, " Who is this Asmodeus, thy 
kinsman? " 

ENAN REVEALS HIMSELF 

" Asmodeus," said Enan, " the great prince who, on his wing, 
bore Solomon from his kingdom to a distant strand." " Woe is 
me," I moaned, " I thought thee a friend ; now thou art a fiend. 
Why didst thou hide thy nature? Why didst thou conceal thy 
descent ? Why hast thou taken me from ray home in guile ? " 
"Nay," said Enan, "where was thy understanding? I gave 
thee my name, thou shouldst have inverted it" [i. e., transpose 
Desk to Shed. Enan at the beginning of the tale had announced 
himself as ha-Desh, he now explains that meant ha-Shed =: the 
demon]. Then Enan gives his pedigree: " I am Enan, the Satan, 
son of Arnan the Demon, son of the Place of Death, son of Rage, 
son of Death's Shadow, son of Terror, son of Trembling, son of 
Destruction, son of Extinction, son of Evil-name, son of Mocking, 
son of Plague, son of Deceit, son of Injury, son of Asmodeus." 

Nevertheless Enan quiets Joseph's fears, and 
promises that no harm shall befall him. He goes 
through Enan's city, sees wizards and sorcerers, and 
sinners and fools, all giants. 

55 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

ENAN'S FRIEND AND HIS DAUGHTER 

Then Enan Introduces his own especial friend. " He is good 
and wise," said Enan, " despite his tall stature. He shows his 
goodness in hating the wise and loving fools; he is generous, 
for he will give a beggar a crust of dry bread, and make him 
pay for it; he knows medicine, for he can tell that if a man is 
buried, he either has been sick, or has had an accident; he 
knows astronomy, for he can tell that it is day when the sun 
shines, and night when the stars appear; he knows arithmetic, 
for he can tell that one and one make two; he knows mensura- 
tion, for he can tell how many handbreadths his belly measures; 
he knows music, for he can tell the difference between the barking 
of a dog and the braying of an ass." " But, said I," continues 
Joseph, " how canst thou be the friend of such a one ? Accursed 
is he, accursed his master." " Nay," answered Enan, " I love 
him not; I know his vile nature: 'tis his daughter that binds me 
to him, for she, with her raven locks and dove's eyes and lily 
cheeks, is fair beyond my power to praise." Yet I warned him 
against marrying the daughter of an uneducated man, an Am 
ha-Arez. Then follows a compilation of passages directed 
against ignorance. " Ah ! " cries Enan, " your warning moves me. 
My love for her is fled. Thou fearest God and lovest me, my 
friend. What is a friend? One heart in two bodies. Then 
find me another wife, one who is beautiful and good. Worse 
than a plague is a bad woman. Listen to what once befell me 
with such a one." 

Thereupon Enan Introduces the last of the stories 
incorporated into the book : 

56 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 
THE WASHERWOMAN WHO DID THE DEVIL'S WORK 

Once upon a time, in my wanderings to and fro upon the 
earth, I came to a city whose inhabitants dwelt together, happy, 
prosperous, and secure. I made myself well acquainted with the 
place and the people, but, despite all my efforts, I was unable to 
entrap a single one. " This is no place for me," I said, " I had 
better return to my own country." I left the city, and, journey- 
ing on, came across a river, at the brink of which I seated myself. 
Scarcely had I done so, when a woman appeared bearing her 
garments to be washed in the river. She looked at me, and 
asked, " Art thou of the children of men or of demons? " " Well," 
said I, " I have grown up among men, but I was born among 
demons." "But what art thou after here?" "Ah," I replied, 
" I have spent a whole month in yonder city. And what have I 
found? A city full of friends, enjoying every happiness in 
common. In vain have I tried to put a little of wickedness 
among them." Then the woman, with a supercilious air: "If 
I am to take thee for a specimen, I must have a very poor 
opinion of the whole tribe of demons. You seem mighty enough, 
but you haven't the strength of women. Stop here and keep an 
eye on the wash; but mind, play me no tricks. I will go back 
to the city and kindle therein fire and fury, and pour over it a 
spirit of mischief, and thou shalt see how I can manage things." 
" Agreed ! " said I, " I will stay here and await thy coming, 
and watch how affairs turn out in thy hands." 

The washerwoman departed, went into the city, called upon 
one of the great families there residing, and requested to see 
the lady of the house. She asked for a washing order, which 
she promised to execute to the most perfect satisfaction. While 
the housemaid was collecting the linen, the washerwoman lifted 

57 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

her eyes to the beautiful face of the mistress, and exclaimed: 
" Yes, they are a dreadful lot, the men ; they are all alike, a 
malediction on them ! The best of them is not to be trusted. 
They love all women but their own wives." " What dost thou 
mean ? " asked the lady. " Merely this," she answered. " Coming 
hither from my house, whom should I meet but thy husband 
making love to another woman, and such a hideous creature, too ! 
How he could forsake beauty so rare and exquisite as thine for 
such disgusting ugliness, passes my understanding. But do not 
weep, dear lady, don't distress thyself and give way. I know 
a means by which I shall bring that husband of thine to his 
senses, so that thou shalt suffer no reproach, and he shall never 
love any other woman than thee. This is what thou must do. 
When thy husband comes home, speak softly and sweetly to him; 
let him suspect nothing; and when he has fallen asleep, take a 
sharp razor and cut off three hairs from his beard ; black or 
white hairs, it matters not. These thou must afterwards give to 
me, and with them I will compound such a remedy that his 
eyes shall be darkened in their sockets, so that he will look no 
more upon other lovely women, but cling to thee alone in mighty 
and manifest and enduring love." All this the lady promised, 
and gifts besides for the washerwoman, should her plan prosper. 
Carrying the garments with her, the woman now sought out 
the lady's husband. With every sign of distress in her voice 
and manner, she told him that she had a frightful secret to 
divulge to him. She knew not if she would have the strength 
to do so. She would rather die first. The husband was all the 
more eager to know, and would not be refused. " Well, then," 
she said, " I have just been to thy house, where my lady, thy 
wife, gave me these garments to wash ; and, while I was yet 

58 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

standing there, a youth, of handsome mien and nobly attired, 
arrived, and the two withdrew into an adjoining room: so I 
inclined mine ear to listen to their speech, and this is what I 
overheard: The young man said to thy wife, 'Kill thy hus- 
band, and I will marry thee.' She, however, declared that she 
was afraid to do such a dreadful deed. * O,' answered he, 
' with a little courage it is quite easy. When thy husband is 
asleep, take a sharp razor and cut his throat.' " In fierce rage, 
but suppressing all outward indication of it, the husband returned 
home. Pretending to fall asleep, he watched his wife closely, 
saw her take a razor to sever the three hairs for the washer- 
woman's spell, darted up suddenly, wrested the razor from her 
hands, and with it slew his wife on the spot. 

The news spread ; the relations of the wife united to avenge 
her death, and kill the husband. In their turn his relatives re- 
solved to avenge him; both houses were embroiled, and before 
the feud was at an end, two hundred and thirty lives were 
sacrificed. The city resounded with a great cry, the like of 
which had never been heard. " From that day," concluded 
Enan, " I decided to injure no man more. Yet for this very 
reason I fear to wed an evil woman." " Fear not," returned 
Joseph, " the girl I recommend is beautiful and good." And 
Enan married her, and loved her. 

Thus Enan is metamorphosed from a public 
demon into something of a domestic saint. Zabara 
gives us an inverted Faust. 

Joseph Returns Home to Barcelona 

" After a while," concludes Joseph, '* I said to 
him, * I have sojourned long enough in this city, the 

59 



" THE BOOK OF DELIGHT " 

ways of which please me not. Ignorance prevails, 
and poetry is unknown; the law is despised; the 
young are set over the old; they slander and are 
impudent. Let me go home after my many years 
of wandering in a strange land. Fain would I seek 
the place where dwells the great prince, Rabbi 
Sheshet Benveniste, of whom Wisdom says. Thou 
art my teacher, and Faith, Thou art my friend.' 
* What qualities,' asked Enan, ' brought him to 
this lofty place of righteousness and power? ' 
' His simplicity and humility, his uprightness and 
saintliness.' " 

And with this eulogy of the aged Rabbi of Bar- 
celona, the poem somewhat inconsequently ends. It 
may be that the author left the work without putting 
in the finishing touches. This would account for 
the extra stories, which, as was seen above, may 
belong to the book, though not incorporated into it. 

It will be thought, from the summary mode in 
which I have rendered these stories, that I take 
Zabara to be rather a literary curiosity than a poet. 
But Zabara's poetical merits are considerable. If 
I have refrained from attempting a literal render- 
ing. It is mainly because the rhymed-prose genre is 
so characteristically Oriental that Its charm is 
incommunicable in a Western language. Hence, 



"THE BOOK OF DELIGHT" 

to those who do not read Zabara In the original, 
he is more easily appreciated as a conteiir than as 
an Imaginative writer. To the Hebraist, too, 
something of the same remark applies. Rhymed 
prose is not much more consistent with the genius 
of Hebrew than it is with the genius of English. 
Arabic and Persian seem the only languages in 
which rhymed prose assumes a natural and melodi- 
ous shape. In the new-Hebrew, rhymed prose has 
always been an exotic, never quite a native flower. 
The most skilful gardeners failed to acclimatize it 
thoroughly In European soil. Yet Zabara's hu- 
mor, his fluent simplicity, his easy mastery over 
Hebrew, his invention, his occasional gleams of 
fancy, his gift of satire, his unfailing charm, com- 
bine to give his poem some right to the title by 
which he called it—" The Book of Delight." 

[Notes, pp. 301-302] 



61 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

Of a land where every stone has its story, it can 
hardly be asserted that any one place has a fuller 
tale to tell than another. But Hebron has a pe- 
culiar old-world charm as the home of the founder 
of the Hebrew race. Moreover, one's youthful 
imagination associates Hebron with the giants, the 
sons of Anak, sons, that is, of the long neck; men 
of Arba, with broad, square shoulders. A sight of 
the place itself revives this memory. Ancient He- 
bron stood higher than the present city, but as 
things now are, though the hills of Judea reach 
their greatest elevation in the neighborhood, He- 
bron itself rests in a valley. Most towns in Pales- 
tine are built on hills, but Hebron lies low. Yet 
the surrounding hills are thirty- two hundred feet 
above the level of the Mediterranean, and five hun- 
dred feet higher than Mount Olivet. For this 
reason Hebron is ideally placed for conveying an 
impression of the mountainous character of Judea. 
In Jerusalem you are twenty-six hundred feet above 
the sea, but, being high up, you scarcely realize that 

62 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

you are In a mountain city. The hills about Hebron 
tower loftily above you, and seem a fitting abode 
for the giants whom Joshua and Caleb overthrew. 
Hebron, from yet another point of view, recalls 
Its old-world associations. Not only is Hebron one 
of the oldest cities In the world still Inhabited, but 
It has been far less changed by Western Influences 
than other famous places. Hebron is almost en- 
tirely unaffected by Christian Influence. In the 
East, Christian Influence more or less means Euro- 
pean Influence, but Hebron Is still completely Ori- 
ental. It Is a pity that modern travellers no longer 
follow the ancient route which passed from Egypt 
along the coast to Gaza, and then struck eastwards 
to Hebron. By this route, the traveller would 
come upon Judea In Its least modernized aspect. 
He would find In Hebron a city without a hotel, 
and unblessed by an ofl^ce of the Monarch of the 
East, Mr. Cook. There are no modern schools In 
Hebron ; the only Institution of the kind, the Mild- 
may Mission School, had scarcely any pupils at the 
time of my visit. This Is but another indication 
of the slight effect that European forces are pro- 
ducing; the most useful, so far, has been the medi- 
cal mission of the United Free Church of Scotland. 
But Hebron has been little receptive of the educa- 

63 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

tional and sanitary boons that are the chief good 
— and It Is a great good — derived from the Euro- 
pean missions In the East. I am almost reluctant 
to tell the truth, as I must, of Hebron, and point 
out the pitiful plight of our brethren there, lest, 
perchance, some philanthropists set about mending 
the evil, to the loss of the primltlveness In which 
Hebron at present revels. This Is the pity of It. 
When you employ a modern broom to sweep away 
the dirt of an ancient city, your are apt to remove 
something else as well as the dirt. 

Besides Its low situation and Its primltlveness, 
Hebron has a third peculiarity. Go where one may 
In Judea, the ancient places, even when still Inhab- 
ited, wear a ruined look. ZIon itself Is scarcely 
an exception. Despite its fifty thousand inhabi- 
tants, Jerusalem has a decayed appearance, for the 
newest buildings often look like ruins. The cause 
of this is that many structures are planned on a 
bigger scale than can be executed, and thus are left 
permanently unfinished, or like the windmill of Sir 
Moses are disused from their very birth. Hebron, 
in this respect again, is unlike the other cities of 
Judea. It had few big buildings, hence it has few 
big ruins. There are some houses of two stories 
in which the upper part has never been completed, 

64 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

but the houses are mostly of one story, with par- 
tially flat and partially domed roofs. The domes 
are the result both of necessity and design; of ne- 
cessity, because of the scarcity of large beams for 
rafters; of design, because the dome enables the 
rain to collect In a groove, or channel, whence It 
sinks Into a reservoir. 

Hebron, then, produces a favorable Impression 
on the whole. It Is green and living. Its hills are 
clad with vines, with plantations of olives, pome- 
granates, figs, quinces, and apricots. Nowhere In 
Judea, except In the Jordan valley, Is there such an 
abundance of water. In the neighborhood of He- 
bron, there are twenty-five springs, ten large per- 
ennial wells, and several splendid pools. Still, as 
when the huge cluster was borne on two men's 
shoulders from Eshkol, the best vines of Palestine 
grow In and around Hebron. The only large struc- 
ture In the city, the mosque which surmounts the 
Cave of Machpelah, Is In excellent repair, espe- 
cially since 1894-5, when the Jewish lads from the 
Alliance school of Jerusalem renewed the iron 
gates within, and supplied fresh rails to the so- 
called sarcophagi of the Patriarchs. The ancient 
masonry built round the cave by King Herod, the 
stones of which exactly resemble the masonry of 
5 65 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

the Wailing Place in Jerusalem, still stands in its 
massive strength. 

I have said that Hebron ought to be approached 
from the South or West. The modern traveller, 
however, reaches it from the North. You leave 
Jerusalem by the Jaffa gate, called by the Moham- 
medans Bab el-Khalil, /'. e. Hebron gate. The 
Mohammedans call Hebron el-Khalil, City of the 
Friend of God, a title applied to Abraham both in 
Jewish arid Mohammedan tradition. Some, in- 
deed, derive the name Hebron from Chaber, com- 
rade or friend; but Hebron may mean " confedera- 
tion of cities," just as its other name, Kiriath-arba, 
may possibly mean Tetrapolis. The distance from 
Jerusalem to Hebron depends upon the views of 
the traveller. You can easily get to Hebron in 
four hours and a half by the new carriage road, 
but the distance, though less than twenty miles, 
took me fourteen hours, from five in the morning 
till seven at night. Most travellers turn aside to 
the left to see the Pools of Solomon, and the grave 
of Rachel lies on the right of the highroad itself. 
It is a modern building with a dome, and the most 
affecting thing is the rough-hewn block of stone 
worn smooth by the lips of weeping women. On 
the opposite side of the road is Tekoah, the birth- 

66 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

place of Amos ; before you reach It, five miles more 
to the north, you get a fine glimpse also of Bethle- 
hem, the White City, cleanest of Judean settle- 
ments. Travellers tell you that the rest of the road 
Is uninteresting. I did not find It so. For the 
motive of my journey was just to see those " un- 
interesting" sites, Beth-zur, where Judas Maccabeus 
won such a victory that he was able to rededlcate the 
Temple, and Beth-zacharlas, through whose broad 
valley-roads the Syrian elephants wound their 
heavy way, to drive Judas back on his precarious 
base at the capital. 

It Is somewhat curious that this Indifference to 
the Maccabean sites Is not restricted to Christian 
tourists. For, though several Jewish travellers 
passed from Jerusalem to Hebron In the Middle 
Ages, none of them mentions the Maccabean sites, 
none of them spares a tear or a cheer for Judas 
Maccabeus. They were probably absorbed In the 
memory of the Patriarchs and of King David, the 
other and older names identified with this district. 
Medieval fancy, besides, was too busy with peo- 
pling Hebron with myths to waste itself on sober 
facts. Hebron, according to a very old notion, was 
the place where Adam and Eve lived after their 
expulsion from Eden; It was from Hebron's red 

67 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

earth that the first man was made. The Pirke di 
Rabbi Eliezer relate, that when the three angels 
visited Abraham, and he went to get a lamb for 
their meal, the animal fled Into a cave. Abraham 
followed it, and saw Adam and Eve lying asleep, 
with lamps burning by their tombs, and a sweet 
savor, as of incense, emanating from the dead 
father and mother of human-kind. Abraham con- 
ceived a love for the Cave, and hence desired it for 
Sarah's resting-place. 

I suppose that some will hold, that we are not 
on surer historical ground when we come to the 
Biblical statement that connects Abraham with He- 
bron. Before arguing whether Abraham lived in 
Hebron, and was buried in Machpelah, one ought 
to prove that Abraham ever lived at all, to be 
buried anywhere. But I shall venture to take 
Abraham's real existence for granted, as I am not 
one of those who think that a statement must be 
false because It Is made in the Book of Genesis. 
That there was a very ancient shrine in Hebron, 
that the great Tree of Mamre was the abode of a 
local deity, may be conceded, but to my mind there 
is no more real figure in history than Abraham. 
Especially when one compares the modern legends 
with the Biblical story does the substantial truth of 

68 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

the narrative in Genesis manifest itself. The nar- 
rative may contain elements of folk poetry, but the 
hero Abraham is a genuine personality. 

As I have mentioned the tree, it may be as well 
to add at once that Abraham's Oak is still shown 
at Hebron, and one can well imagine how it was 
thought that this magnificent terebinth dated 
from Bible times. A few years ago it was a fresh, 
vigorous giant, but now it is quite decayed. The 
ruin began in 1853, when a large branch was 
broken off by the weight of the snow. Twelve 
years ago the Russian Archimandrite of Jerusalem 
purchased the land on which the tree stands, and 
naturally he took much care of the relic. In fact, 
he took too much care, for some people think that 
the low wall which the Russians erected as a safe- 
guard round the Oak, has been the cause of the 
rapid decay that has since set in. Year by year the 
branches have dropped off, the snow and the light- 
ning have had their victims. It is said that only 
two or three years ago one branch towards the 
East was still living, but when I saw it, the trunk 
was bare and bark-less, full of little worm-holes, 
and quite without a spark of vitality. The last 
remaining fragment has since fallen, and now the 
site of the tree is only marked by the row of young 

69 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

cypresses which have been planted In a circle round 
the base of the Oak of Mamre. But who shall 
prophesy that, a century hence, a tree will not have 
acquired sufficient size and antiquity to be foisted 
upon uncritical pilgrims as the veritable tree under 
which Father Abraham dwelt ! 

The Jewish tradition does not quite agree with 
the view that identified this old tree with Mamre. 
According to Jewish tradition, the Tree Is at the 
ruins of Ramet el-Khalil, the High Place of the 
Friend, i. e, of Abraham, about two miles nearer 
Jerusalem. Mr. Shaw Caldecott has propounded 
the theory that this site is Samuel's Ramah, and 
that the vast ruins of a stone-walled enclosure here 
represent the enclosure within which Samuel's altar 
stood. The Talmud has It that Abraham erected 
a guest-house for the entertainment of strangers 
near the Grove of Mamre. There were doors on 
every side, so that the traveller found a welcome 
from whichever direction he came. There our 
father made the name of God proclaimed at the 
mouth of all wayfarers. How? After they had 
eaten and refreshed themselves, they rose to thank 
him. Abraham answered, "Was the food mine? 
It is the bounty of the Creator of the Universe." 
Then they praised, glorified, and blessed Him who 
spake and the world was. 

70 . 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

We are on the road now near Hebron, but, be- 
fore entering, let us recall a few Incidents in its 
history. After the Patriarchal age, Hebron was 
noted as the possession of Caleb. It also figures as 
a priestly city and as one of the cities of refuge. 
David passed much of his life here, and, after 
Saul's death, Hebron was the seat of David's rule 
over Judea. Abner was slain here by Joab, and 
was burled here — they still show Abner' s tomb in 
the garden of a large house within the city. By the 
pool at Hebron were slain the murderers of Ish- 
bosheth, and here Absalom assumed the throne. 
After his time we hear less of Hebron. Jerusalem 
overshadowed it in importance, yet we have one 
or two mentions. Rehoboam strengthened the 
town, and from a stray reference in Nehemiah, we 
gather that the place long continued to be called 
by its older name of Kiriath Arba. For a long 
period after the return from the Exile Hebron be- 
longed to the Idumxcans. It was the scene of war- 
fare in the Maccabean period, and also during the 
rebellion against Rome. In the market-place at 
Hebron, Hadrian sold numbers of Jewish slaves 
after the fall of Bar-Cochba, in 135 c. E. In the 
twelfth century Hebron was in the hands of the 
Christian Crusaders. The fief of Hebron, or, as 

71 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

It was called, of Saint Abraham, extended south- 
wards to Beer-sheba. A bishopric was founded 
there in 1169, but was abandoned twenty years 
later. 

We hear of many pilgrims in the Middle Ages. 
The Christians used to eat some of the red earth 
of Hebron, the earth from which Adam was made. 
On Sunday the seventeenth of October, 11 65, Mai- 
monides was in Hebron, passing the city on his 
way from Jerusalem to Cairo. Obadiah of Berti- 
noro, in 1488, took Hebron on the reverse route. 
He went from Egypt across the desert to Gaza, 
and, though he travelled all day, did not reach 
Hebron from Gaza till the second morning. If 
the text is correct, David Reubeni was four days 
in traversing the same road, a distance of about 
thirty-three miles. To revert to an earlier time, 
Nachmanides very probably visited Hebron. In- 
deed, his grave is shown to the visitor. But this 
report is inaccurate. He wrote to his son, in 1267, 
from Jerusalem, " Now I intend to go to Hebron, 
to the sepulchre of our ancestors, to prostrate my- 
self, and there to dig my grave." But he must 
have altered his mind In the last-named particular, 
for his tomb is most probably in Acre. 

I need not go through the list of distinguished 
72 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

visitors to Hebron. Suffice it to say that in the 
fourteenth century there was a large and flourish- 
ing community of Jews in the town; they were 
weavers and dyers of cotton stuffs and glass- 
makers, and the Rabbi was often himself a shep- 
herd in the literal sense, teaching the Torah while 
at work in the fields. He must have felt embar- 
rassed sometimes between his devotion to his meta- 
phorical and to his literal flock. When I was at 
Moza, I was talking over some Biblical texts with 
Mr. David Yellin, who was with me. The colo- 
nists endured this for a while, but at last they broke 
into open complaint. One of the colonists said to 
me : '' It is true that the Mishnah forbids you to 
turn aside from the Torah to admire a tree, but you 
have come all the way from Europe to admire my 
trees. Leave the Torah alone for the present.'' 
I felt that he was right, and wondered how the 
Shepherd Rabbis of Hebron managed in similar 
circumstances. 

In the century of which I am speaking, the He- 
bron community consisted entirely of Sefardim, 
and it was not till the sixteenth century that Ash- 
kenazim settled there in large numbers. I have 
already mentioned the visit of David Reubeni. He 
was in Hebron in 1523, when he entered the Cave 

73 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

of Machpelah on March tenth, at noon. It is of 
interest to note that his account of the Cave agrees 
fully with that of Conder. It is now quite certain 
that he was really there in person, and his narrative 
was not made up at second hand. The visit of 
Reubeni, as well as Sabbatai Zebi's, gave new 
vogue to the place. When Sabbatai was there, a 
little before the year 1666, the Jews were awake 
and up all night, so as not to lose an instant of the 
sacred intercourse with the Messiah. But the 
journey to Hebron was not popular till our own 
days. It was too dangerous, the Hebron natives en- 
joying a fine reputation for ferocity and brigand- 
age. An anonymous Hebrew writer writes from 
Jerusalem In 1495, that a few days before a Jew 
from Hebron had been waylaid and robbed. But 
he adds: '' I hear that on Passover some Jews 
are coming here from Egypt and Damascus, with 
the intention of also visiting Hebron. I shall go 
with them, if I am still alive." 

In Baedeker, Hebron is still given a bad charac- 
ter, the Muslims of the place being called fanatical 
and violent. I cannot confirm this verdict. The 
children throw stones at you, but they take good 
care not to hit. As I have already pointed out, 
Hebron Is completely non-Christian, just as Beth- 

74 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

lehem is completely non-Mohammedan. The 
Crescent is very disinclined to admit the Cross Into 
Hebron, the abode of Abraham, a name far more 
honored by Jews and Mohammedans than by 
Christians. 

It Is not quite just to call the Hebronites fanati- 
cal and sullen; they really only desire to hold He- 
bron as their own. " Hebron for the Hebronites " 
Is their cry. The road, at all events, is quite safe. 
One of the surprises of Palestine is the huge traffic 
along the main roads. Orientals not only make a 
great bustle about what they do, but they really are 
very busy people. Along the roads you meet 
masses of passengers, people on foot, on mules and 
horses, on camels, in wheeled vehicles. You come 
across groups of pilgrims, with one mule to the 
party, carrying the party's goods, the children al- 
ways barefooted and bareheaded — the latter fact 
making you realize how the little boy in the Bible 
story falling sick in the field exclaimed " My 
head, my head ! " Besides the pilgrims, there are 
the bearers of goods and produce. You see don- 
keys carrying large stones for building, one stone 
over each saddle. If you are as lucky as I was, you 
may see a runaway camel along the Hebron road, 
scouring alone at break-neck speed, with laughter- 
producing gait. 

75 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

Of Hebron itself I saw little as I entered, because 
I arrived towards sunset, and only had time to 
notice that everyone in the streets carried a lan- 
tern. In Jerusalem only the women carry lights, 
but in Hebron men had them as well. I wondered 
where I was to pass the night. Three friends had 
accompanied me from Jerusalem, and they told me 
not to worry, as we could stay at the Jewish doc- 
tor's. It seemed to me a cool piece of impudence 
to billet a party on a man whose name had been pre- 
viously unknown to me, but the result proved that 
they were right. The doctor welcomed us right 
heartily; he said that it was a joy to entertain us. 
Now it was that one saw the advantages of the 
Oriental architecture. The chief room in an East- 
ern house is surrounded on three sides by a wide 
stone or wooden divan, which. In wealthy houses, 
is richly upholstered. The Hebron doctor was not 
rich, but there was the same divan covered with a 
bit of chintz. On It one made one's bed, hard, it is 
true, but yet a bed. You always take your rugs 
with you for covering at night, you put your port- 
manteau under your head as a pillow, and there you 
are ! You may rely upon one thing. People who, 
on their return from Palestine, tell you that they 
had a comfortable trip, have seen nothing of the 

76 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

real life of the country. To do that you must 
rough it, as I did both at Modin and at Hebron. 
To return to the latter. The rooms have stone 
floors and vaulted roofs, the children walk about 
with wooden shoes, and the pitter-patter makes a 
pleasant music. They throw off the shoes as they 
enter the room. My host had been In Hebron for 
six years, and he told me overnight what I observed 
for myself next day, that, considering the fearful 
conditions under which the children live, there Is 
comparatively little sickness. As for providing 
meals, a genuine communism prevails. You pro- 
duce your food, your host adds his store, and you 
partake In common of the feast to which both sides 
contribute. After a good long talk, I got to sleep 
easily, thinking, as I dozed off, that I should pass a 
pleasant night. I had become Impervious to the 
mosquitoes, but there was something else which I 
had forgotten. Was It a dream, an awful night- 
mare, or had a sudden descent of Bedouins oc- 
curred? Gradually I was awakened by a noise as 
of wild beasts let loose, howls of rage and calls to 
battle. It was only the dogs. In Jerusalem I had 
never heard them, as the Jewish hotel was then 
well out of the town; it has since been moved 
nearer in. It Is Impossible to convey a sense of the 

77 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

terrifying effect produced by one's first experience 
of the night orgies of Oriental dogs, it curdles your 
blood to recall it. Seen by daytime, the dogs are 
harmless enough, as they go about their scavenger 
work among the heaps of refuse and filth. But by 
night they are howling demons, stampeding about 
the streets in mad groups, barking to and at each 
other, whining piteously one moment, roaring 
hoarsely and snapping fiercely another. 

The dogs did me one service, they made me get 
up early. I walked through a bluish-gray atmos- 
phere. Colors in Judea are bright, yet there is 
always an effect as of a thin gauze veil over them. 
I went, then, into the streets, and at five o'clock the 
sun was high, and the bustle of the place had be- 
gun. The air was keen and fresh, and many were 
already abroad. I saw some camels start for Jeru- 
salem, laden with straw mats made in Hebron. 
Next went some asses carrying poultry for the Holy 
City, then a family caravan with its Inevitable 
harem of closely veiled women. Then I saw a man 
with tools for hewing stone, camels coming into 
Hebron, a boy with a large petroleum can going 
to fetch water, — they are abandoning the use of 
the olden picturesque stone pitchers, — then I saw 
asses loaded with vine twigs, one with lime, women 

78 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

with black dresses and long white veils, boys with 
bent backs carrying iron stones. I saw, too, some 
Bethlehemite Christians hurrying home to the tra- 
ditional site of the nativity. You can always dis- 
tinguish these, for they are the only Christians in 
Palestine that wear turbans habitually. And all 
over the landscape dominated the beautiful green 
hills, fresh with the morning dew, a dew so thick 
that I had what I had not expected, a real morning 
bath. I was soaked quite wet by the time I re- 
turned from my solitary stroll. I had a capital 
breakfast, for which we supplied the solids, and our 
host the coffee. Butter is a luxury which we neither 
expected nor got. Hebron, none the less, seemed 
to me a Paradise, and I applauded the legend that 
locates Adam and Eve in this spot. 

Alas ! I had not yet seen Hebron. The doctor 
lived on the outskirts near the highroad, where 
there are many fine and beautiful residences. I was 
soon to enter the streets and receive a rude awaken- 
ing, when I saw the manner in which the fifteen 
hundred Jews of Hebron live. Hebron is a ghetto 
in a garden ; It is worse than even Jerusalem, Jeru- 
salem being clean in comparison. Dirty, dark, nar- 
row, vaulted, unevenly paved, running with liquid 
slime — such are the streets of Hebron. You are 

79 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

constantly in danger of slipping, unless you wear 
the flat, heel-less Eastern shoes, and, if you once 
fell, not all the perfumes of Araby could make you 
sweet again. 

I should say that, before starting on my round, 
I had to secure the attendance of soldiers. Not 
that It was necessary, but they utilize Baedeker's 
assertion, that the people are savage, to get fees 
out of visitors — a cunning manner of turning the 
enemy's libels to profitable account. I hired two 
soldiers, but one by one others joined my train, so 
that by the time my tour was over, I had a whole 
regiment of guardians, all demanding baksheesh. 
I would only deal with the leader, a ragged war- 
rior with two daggers, a sword, and a rifle. " How 
much?'* I asked. "We usually ask a napoleon 
(i. e. 20 francs) for an escort, but we will charge 
you only ten francs." I turned to the doctor 
and asked him, " How much? " " Give them a 
beslik between them," he said. A beslik Is only 
five pence. I offered it in trepidation, but the sum 
satisfied the whole gang, who thanked me pro- 
fusely. 

First I visited the prison, a sort of open air cage. 
In which about a dozen men were smoking cigar- 
ettes. The prison was much nicer than the Mo- 

80 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

hammedan school close by. This was a small 
overcrowded room, with no window in it, the little 
boys sitting on the ground, swaying with a sleepy 
chant. The teacher's only function was repre- 
sented by his huge cane, which he plied often and 
skilfully. Outside the door was a barber shaving 
a pilgrim's head. The pilgrim was a Muslim, 
going on the Haj to Mecca. These pilgrims are 
looked on with mingled feelings; their piety is ad- 
mired, but also distrusted. A local saying is, *' If 
thy neighbor has been on the Haj, beware of him; 
if he has been twice, have no dealings with him; if 
he has been thrice, move into another street." 
After the pilgrim, I passed a number of blind 
weavers, working before large wooden frames. 

But now for the Jewish quarter. This is entered 
by a low wooden door, at which we had to knock 
and then stoop to get in. The Jews are no longer 
forced to have this door, but they retain it volun- 
tarily. Having got in, we were in a street so dark 
that we could not see a foot before us, but we kept 
m.oving, and soon came to a slightly better place, 
where the sun crept through in fitful gleams. The 
oldest synagogue was entered first. Its flooring 
was of marble squares, its roof vaulted, and its 
Ark looked north towards Jerusalem. There were, 
6 81 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

as SO often In the East, two Arks; when one is too 
small, they do not enlarge it, but build another. 
The Sefardic Talmud Torah is a small room 
without window or ventilation, the only light and 
air enter by the door. The children were huddled 
together on an elevated wooden platform. They 
could read Hebrew fluently, and most of them 
spoke Arabic. The German children speak Yid- 
dish; the custom of using Hebrew as a living lan- 
guage has not spread here so much as in Jaffa and 
the colonies. The Beth ha-Midrash for older chil- 
dren was a little better equipped; it had a stone 
floor, but the pupils reclined on couches round the 
walls. They learn very little of what we should 
call secular subjects. I examined the store of manu- 
scripts, but Professor Schechter had been before 
me, and there was nothing left but modern Cab- 
balistic literature. The other synagogue is small, 
and very bare of ornament. The Rabbi was seated 
there, " learning,'* with great Tefillin and Tallith 
on — a fine, simple, benevolent soul. To my sur- 
prise he spoke English, and turned out to be none 
other than Rachmim Joseph Franco, who, as long 
ago as 1 85 1, when the earthquake devastated the 
Jewish quarter, had been sent from Rhodes to col- 
lect relief funds. He was very ailing, and I could 

82 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

not have a long -conversation with him, but he told 
me that he had known my father, who was then a 
boy, in London. Then I entered a typical Jewish 
dwelling of the poor. It consisted of a single 
room, opening on to the dark street, and had a 
tiny barred window at the other side. On the 
left was a broad bed, on the right a rude cooking 
stove and a big water pitcher. There was nothing 
else In the room, except a deep stagnant mud pool, 
which filled the centre of the floor. 

Next door they were baking Matzoth In an 
oven fed by a wood fire. It was a few days before 
Passover. The Matzoth were coarse, and had 
none of the little holes with which we are familiar. 
So through streets within streets, dirt within dirt, 
room over room, in hopeless intricacy. Then we 
were brought to a standstill, a man was coming 
down the street with a bundle of wood, and we had 
to wait till he had gone by, the streets being too 
narrow for two persons to pass each other. An- 
other street was impassable for a different reason, 
there was quite a river of flowing mud, knee deep. 
I asked for a boat, but a man standing by hoisted 
me on his shoulders, and carried me across, himself 
wading through it with the same unconcern as the 
boys and girls were wallowing In it, playing and 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

amusing themselves. How alike children are all 
the world over! 

And yet, with it all, Hebron is a healthy place. 
There is little of the intermittent fever prevalent 
in other parts of Palestine; illness is common, but 
not in a bad form. Jerusalem is far more un- 
healthy, because of the lack of water. But the 
Jews of Hebron are miserably poor. How they 
live is a mystery. They are not allowed to own 
land, even if they could acquire it. There was once 
a little business to be done in lending money to the 
Arabs, but as the Government refuses to help in 
the collection of debts, this trade is not flourishing, 
and a good thing, too. There are, of course, some 
industries. First there is the wine. I saw nothing 
of the vintage, as my visit was in the spring, but I 
tasted the product and found it good. The Arab 
vine-owners sell the grapes to Jews, who extract the 
juice. Still there is room for enterprise here, and 
it is regrettable that few seem to think of Hebron 
when planning the regeneration of Judea. True, 
I should regret the loss of primitiveness here, as I 
said at the outset, but when the lives of men are 
concerned, esthetics must go to the wall. The Jew- 
ish quarter was enlarged in 1875, ^^^ it is still in- 
adequate. The Society Lemaan Zion has done 

84 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

a little to introduce modern education, but neither 
the Alliance nor the Anglo-Jewish Association has 
a school here. Lack of means prevents the neces- 
sary efforts from being made. Most deplorable Is 
the fact connected with the hospital. In a beautiful 
sunlit road above the mosque, amid olive groves, is 
the Jewish hospital, ready for use, well-built, but 
though the very beds were there when I saw It, no 
patients could be received, as there were no funds. 
The Jewish doctor v/as doing a wonderful work. 
He had exiled himself from civilized life, as we 
Westerns understand it; his children had no school 
to which to go ; he felt himself stagnating, without 
intellectual intercourse with his equals, yet active, 
kindly, uncomplaining — one of those everyday 
martyrs whom one meets so often among the Jews 
of Judea, men who day by day see their ambitions 
vanishing under the weight of a crushing duty. It 
was sad to see how he lingered over the farewell 
when I left him. I said that his house had seemed 
an oasis in the desert to me, that I could never for- 
get the time spent with him. " And what of me ? '^ 
he answered. " Your visit has been an oasis in the 
desert to me, but you go and the desert remains." 
Surely, the saddest thing in life is this feeling that 
one's own uninteresting, commonplace self should 

85 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

mean so much to others. I call It sad, because so 
few of us realize v/hat we may mean to others, 
being so absorbed in our selfish thought of what 
others mean to us. 

There are two industries in Hebron besides the 
vintage. It supplies most of the skin-bottles used 
In Judea, and a good deal of glassware, including 
lamps, is manufactured there. The Hebron tan- 
nery is a picturesque place, but no Jews are em- 
ployed in it. Each bottle is made from an entire 
goat-skin, from which only the head and feet are 
removed. The lower extremities are sewn up, and 
the neck Is drawn together to form the neck of the 
water bottle. Some trade is also done here in 
wool, which the Arabs bring in and sell at the mar- 
ket held every Friday. In ancient times the sheep 
used in the Temple sacrifices were obtained from 
Hebron. Besides the tannery, the glass factories 
are worth a visit. The one which I saw was in a 
cavern, lit only by the glow of the central furnace. 
Seated round the hearth (I am following Gautier's 
faithful description of the scene) and served by 
two or three boys, were about ten workmen, mak- 
ing many-colored bracelets and glass rings, which 
varied In size from small finger rings to circlets 
through which you could easily put your arm. 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

The workmen are provided with two metal rods 
and a pair of small tongs, and they ply these primi- 
tive Instruments with wonderful dexterity. They 
work very hard, at least fifteen hours a day, for 
five days a week. 

This Is one of the curiosities of the East. Either 
the men there are loafers, or they work with ex- 
traordinary vigor. There Is nothing between doing 
too much and doing nothing. The same thing 
strikes one at Jaffa. The porters who carry your 
baggage from the landing stage to the steamer do 
more work than three English dock laborers. They 
carry terrific weights. When a family moves, a 
porter carries all the furniture on his back. Yet 
side by side with these overworked men, Jaffa Is 
crowded with Idlers, who do absolutely nothing. 
Such are the contrasts of the surprising Orient. 

Many of the beads and rosaries taken to Europe 
by pious pilgrims are made in Hebron, just as the 
mother of pearl relics come chiefly from Bethle- 
hem, where are made also the tobacco-jars of Dead 
Sea stone. Hebron does a fair trade with the 
Bedouins, but on the whole It Is quite unprogres- 
slve. At first sight this may seem rather an un- 
pleasant fact for lovers of peace. Hebron has for 
many centuries been absolutely free from the rav- 

87 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

ages of war, yet it stagnates. Peace is clearly not 
enough for progress. As the Rabbinical phrase 
well puts it, " Peace is the vessel which holds all 
other good " — without peace this other good is 
spilt, but peace is after all the containing vessel, not 
the content of happiness. 

I have left out, in the preceding narrative, the 
visit paid to the Plaram erected over the Cave of 
Machpelah. The mosque is an imposing structure, 
and rises above the houses on the hill to the left as 
you enter from Jerusalem. The walls of the en- 
closure and of the mosque are from time to time 
whitewashed, so that the general appearance is 
somewhat dazzling. It has already been men- 
tioned that certain repairs were effected in 1894-5. 
The work was done by the lads of the Technical 
School in Jerusalem; they made an iron gate for 
Joseph's tomb, — the Moslems believe that Joseph 
is buried in Hebron, — and they made one gate for 
Abraham's tomb, one gate and three window grat- 
ings for Isaac's tomb, and one gate and two win- 
dow gratings for Rebekah's tomb. This iron work, 
it is satisfactory to remember, was rendered pos- 
sible by the splendid machinery sent out to the 
school from London by the Anglo- Jewish Associa- 
tion. The ordinary Jewish visitor is not allowed 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

to enter the enclosure at all. I was stopped at the 
steps, where the custodian audaciously demanded 
a tip for not letting me in. The tombs within are 
not the real tombs of the Patriarchs; they are 
merely late erections over the spots where the 
Patriarchs lie buried. 

No one has ever doubted that Machpelah Is 
actually at this site, but the building is, of course, 
not Patriarchal In age. The enclosure is as old as 
the Wailing Wall at Jerusalem. It belongs to the 
age of Herod; we see the same cyclopean stones, 
with the same surface draftings as at Jerusalem. 
Why Herod built this edifice seems clear. Hebron 
was the centre of Idumean influence, and Herod 
was an Idumean. He had a family interest in the 
place, and hence sought to beautify it. No Jew or 
Christian can enter the enclosure except by special 
Irade; even Sir Moses Montefiore was refused the 
privilege. Rather, one should say, the Moslem au- 
thorities wished to let Sir Moses In, but they were 
prevented by the mob from carrying out their 
amiable Intentions. The late English King Ed- 
ward VII and the present King George V were 
privileged to enter the structure. Mr. Elkan Ad- 
ler got in at the time when the Alliance workmen 
were repairing the gates, but there Is nothing to 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

see of any interest. No one within historical times 
has penetrated below the mosque, to the cavern 
itself. We still do not know whether it is called 
Machpelah because the Cave is double vertically 
or double horizontally. 

The outside is much more interesting than the 
inside. Half way up the steps leading into the 
miosque, there is a small hole or window at which 
many Jews pray, and into which, it is said, all sorts 
of things, including letters to the Patriarchs, are 
thrown, especially by women. In the Middle Ages, 
they spread at this hole a tender calf, some venison 
pasties, and some red pottage, every day, in honor 
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the food was 
eaten by the poor. It is commonly reported, though 
I failed to obtain any local confirmation of the 
assertion, that the Jews still write their names and 
their requests on strips of paper and thrust them 
into this hole. The Moslems let down a lamp 
through the hole, and also cast money into it, 
which is afterwards picked up by little boys as it is 
required for the purposes of the mosque and for 
repairing the numerous tombs of prophets and 
saints with which Hebron abounds. If you were 
to believe the local traditions, no corpses were left 
for other cemeteries. The truth is that much ob- 

90 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

scurlty exists as to the identity even of modern 
tombs, for Hebron preserves its old custom, and 
none of the Jewish tombs to this day bear epitaphs. 
What a mass of posthumous hypocrisy would the 
world be spared if the Hebron custom were preva- 
lent everywhere ! But it is obvious that the method 
lends itself to inventiveness, and as the tombs are 
unnamed, local guides tell you anything they choose 
about them, and you do not believe them even when 
they are speaking the truth. 

There is only one other fact to tell about the 
Cave. The Moslems have a curious dread of Isaac 
and Rebekah, they regard the other Patriarchs as 
kindly disposed, but Isaac is irritable, and Rebekah 
malicious. It is told of Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt, 
he who " feared neither man nor devil," that when 
he was let down into the Cave by a rope, he sur- 
prised Rebekah in the act of combing her hair. 
She resented the intrusion, and gave him so severe 
a box on the ears that he fell down in a fit, and 
could be rescued alive only with much difficulty. It 
is with equal difficulty that one can depart, with any 
reverence left, from the mass of legend and child- 
ishness with which one is crushed in such places. 
One escapes with the thought of the real Abraham, 
his glorious service to humanity, his lifelong devo- 

91 



A VISIT TO HEBRON 

tion to the making of souls, to the spread of the 
knowledge of God. One recalls the Abraham who, 
in the Jewish tradition, is the type of unselfishness, 
of watchfulness on behalf of his descendants, the 
marks of whose genuine relationship to the Patri- 
arch are a generous eye and a humble spirit. As 
one turns from Hebron, full of such happy memo- 
ries, one forms the resolve not to rely solely on an 
appeal to the Patriarch's merits, but to strive to do 
something oneself for the Jewish cause, and thus 
fulfil the poet's lines. 

Thus shalt thou plant a garden • round the tomb, 
W^here golden hopes may flower, and fruits immortal bloom. 
[Notes, pp. 302-303] 



92 



THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

In the year 1190, Judah ibn Tibbon, a famous 
Provengal Jew, who had migrated to Southern 
France from Granada, wrote In Hebrew as follows 
to his son : 

" Avoid bad society: make thy books thy com- 
panions. Let thy bookcases and shelves be thy 
gardens and pleasure grounds. Pluck the fruit that 
grows therein ; gather the roses, the spices, and the 
myrrh. If thy soul be satiate and weary, change 
from garden to garden, from furrow to furrow, 
from scene to scene. Then shall thy desire renew 
Itself, and thy soul be rich with manifold delight.'* 

In this beautiful comparison of a library to a 
garden, there is one point missing. The perfection 
of enjoyment Is reached when the library, or at 
least a portable part of It, Is actually carried into 
the garden. When LIghtfoot was residing at Ash- 
ley (Staffordshire), he followed this course, as we 
know from a letter of his biographer. " There he 
built himself a small house in the midst of a garden, 
containing two rooms below, viz. a study and a 



THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

withdrawing room, and a lodging chamber above; 
and there he studied hard, and laid the foundations 
of his Rabbinic learning, and took great delight, 
lodging there often, though [quaintly adds John 
Stype] he was then a married man." Montaigne, 
whose great-grandfather, be it recalled, was a 
Spanish Jew, did not possess a library built in the 
open air, but he had the next best thing. He used 
the top story of a tower, whence, says he, " I be- 
hold under me my garden." 

In ancient Athens, philosophers thought out 
their grandest ideas walking up and down their 
groves. Nature sobers us. " When I behold Thy 
heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and 
the stars which Thou hast ordained; what is man 
that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of man 
that Thou visitest him ? " But if nature sobers, 
she also consoles. As the Psalmist continues: 
'' Thou hast made him but little lower than the 
angels, and crownest him with glory and honor. 
Thou madest him to have dominion over the works 
of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his 
feet." Face to face with nature, man realizes that 
he Is greater than she. '^ On earth there is noth- 
ing great but man, in man there is nothing great 
but mind." So, no doubt, the Athenian sages 



THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

gained courage as well as modesty from the con- 
tact of mind with nature. And not they only, for 
our own Jewish treasure, the Mishnah, grew up, if 
not literally, at least metaphorically, in the open 
air, in the vineyard of Jamnia. Standing in the 
sordid little village which to-day occupies the site 
of ancient Jamnia, with the sea close at hand and 
the plain of Sharon and the Judean lowlands at my 
feet, I could see Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkai and 
his comrades pacing to and fro, pondering those 
great thoughts which live among us now, though 
the authors of them have been in their graves for 
eighteen centuries. 

It is curious how often this habit of movement 
goes with thinking. Montaigne says: "Every 
place of retirement requires a Walk. My thoughts 
sleep if I sit still; my Fancy does not go by itself, 
as it goes when my Legs move it." What Mon- 
taigne seems to mean is that we love rhythm. Body 
and mind must move together in harmony. So it 
is with the Mohammedan over the Koran, and the 
Rabbi over the Talmud. Jews sway at prayer for 
the same reason. Movement of the body is not a 
mere mannerism ; it is part of the emotion, like the 
instrumental accompaniment to a song. The child 
cons his lesson moving; we foolishly call it " fidget- 

95 



THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

ing." The child Is never receptive unless also 
active. But there is another of Montaigne's feel- 
ings, with which I have no sympathy. He loved to 
think when on the move, but his walk must be 
solitary. '' 'TIs here," he says of his library, '' I 
am in my kingdom, and I endeavor to make myself 
an absolute monarch. So I sequester this one 
corner from all society — conjugal, filial, civil." 
This Is a detestable habit. It is the acme of selfish- 
ness, to shut yourself up with your books. To 
write over your study door " Let no one enter 
here ! " is to proclaim your work divorced from 
life. Montaigne gloried In the Inaccessibility of 
his asylum. His house was perched upon an 
*' overpeering hillock," so that in any part of it — 
still more in the round room of the tower — he 
could " the better seclude myself from company, 
and keep encroachers from miC." Yet some may 
work best when there are others beside them. 
From the book the reader turns to the child that 
prattles near, and realizes how much more the 
child can ask than the book can answer. The pres- 
ence of the young living soul corrects the vanity of 
the dead old pedant. Books are most solacing 
when the limitations of bookish wisdom are per- 
ceived. " Literature," said Matthew Arnold, '* is 

96 



THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

a criticism of life." This is true, despite the objec- 
tions of Saintsbury, but I venture to add that " Hfe 
is a criticism of hterature." 

Now, I am not going to convert a paper on the 
Solace of Books into a paper in dispraise of books. 
I shall not be so untrue to my theme. But I give 
fair warning that I shall make no attempt to scale 
the height or sound the depth of the intellectual 
phases of this great subject. I invite my reader 
only to dally desultorily on the gentler slopes of 
sentiment. 

One of the most comforting qualities of books 
has been well expressed by Richard of Bury in his 
famous Philobiblon, w^'itten in 1344. This is an 
exquisite little volume on the Love of Books, which 
Mr. Israel Gollancz has now edited in an exquisite 
edition, attainable for the sum of one shilling. 
" How safely," says Richard, '' we lay bare the 
poverty of human Ignorance to books, without feel- 
ing any shame." 

Then he goes on to describe books as those silent 
teachers who " instruct us without rods or stripes; 
without taunts or anger; without gifts or money; 
who are not asleep when we approach them, and do 
not deny us when we question them; who do not 
chide us when we err, or laugh at us if we are 
Ignorant." 

7 97 



THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

It Is Richard of Bury's last phrase that I find so 
solacing. No one Is ever ashamed of turning to a 
book, but many hesitate to admit their ignorance 
to an interlocutor. Your dictionary, your encyclo- 
pedia, and your other books, are the recipients of 
many a silent confession of nescience which you 
would never dream of making auricular. You go 
to these *' golden pots in which manna is stored," 
and extract food exactly to your passing taste, with- 
out needing to admit, as Esau did to Jacob, that 
you are hungry unto death. This comparison of 
books to food is of itself solacing, for there is al- 
ways something attractive In metaphors drawn 
from the delights of the table. The metaphor Is 
very old. 

" Open thy mouth,'* said the Lord to Ezeklel, 
" and eat that which I give thee. And when I 
looked, a hand was put forth unto me, and, lo, a 

scroll of a book was therein Then I did 

eat it, and It was In my mouth as honey for sweet- 
ness." 

What a quaint use does Richard of Bury make 
of this very passage! Addressing the clergy, he 
says '' Eat the book with Ezeklel, that the belly 
of your memory may be sweetened within, and 
thus, as with the panther refreshed, to whose 

98 



THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

breath all beasts and cattle long to approach, the 
sweet savor of the spices It has eaten may shed a 
perfume without." 

Willing enough would I be to devote the whole 
of my paper to Richard of Bury. I must, however, 
content myself with one other noble extract, which, 
I hope, will whet my reader's appetite for more: 
*' Moses, the gentlest of men, teaches us to make 
bookcases most neatly, wherein they [books] may 
be protected from any injury. Take, he says, this 
book of the Law and put It in the side of the Ark of 
the Covenant of the Lord your God. O fitting 
place and appropriate for a library, which was 
made of Imperishable shittim [i. e. acacia] wood, 
and was covered within and without with gold." 

Still we must not push this Idea of costly book- 
cases too far. Judah the Pious wrote in the 
twelfth century, " Books were made for use, not 
to be hidden away." This reminds me that Rich- 
ard of Bury Is not the only medieval book-lover 
with whom we might spend a pleasant evening. 
Judah ben Samuel Sir Leon, surnamed the Pious, 
whom I have just quoted, wrote the " Book of the 
Pious " in Hebrew, in 1190, and It has many ex- 
cellent paragraphs about books. Judah's subject 
is, however, the care of books rather than the sol- 

99 



THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

ace derivable from them. Still, he comes into my 
theme, for few people can have enjoyed books 
more than he. He had no selfish love for them : he 
not only possessed books, he lent them. He was a 
very prince of book-lenders, for he did not object 
if the borrowers of his books re-lent them in their 
turn. So, on dying, he advised his sons to lend his 
books even to an enemy (par. 876). '' If a father 
dies," he says elsewhere (par. 919), " and leaves 
a dog and a book to his sons, one shall not say to 
the other, You take the dog, and I'll take the 
book," as though the two were comparable in value. 
Poor, primitive Judah the Pious I We wiser mod- 
erns should never dream of making the comparison 
between a dog and a book, but for the opposite 
reason. Judah shrank from equalling a book to a 
dog, but we know better than to undervalue a dog 
so far as to compare it with a book. The kennel 
costs more than the bookcase, and love of dogs is a 
higher solace than love of books. To those who 
think thus, what more convincing condemnation of 
books could be formulated than the phrase coined 
by Gilbert de Porre in praise of his library, " It is 
a garden of immortal fruits, without dog or 
dragon." 

I meant to part with Richard of Bury, but I 
100 



THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

must ask permission to revert to him. Some of the 
deHght he felt in books arose from his preference 
of reading to oral intercourse. " The truth in 
speech perishes with the sound : it is patent to the 
ear only and eludes the sight : begins and perishes 
as it were in a breath." Personally I share this 
view, and I believe firmly that the written word 
brings more pleasure than the spoken word. 

Plato held the opposite view. He would have 
agreed with the advice given by Chesterfield to his 
son, *' Lay aside the best book when you can go 
into the best company — depend upon it you change 
for the better." Plato did, indeed, characterize 
books as " immortal sons deifying their sires." But, 
on the opposite side, he has that memorable pas- 
sage, part of which I now quote, from the same 
source that has supplied several others of my quo- 
tations, Mr. Alexander Ireland's " Book-Lover's 
Enchiridion." '' Writing," says Plato, *' has this 
terrible disadvantage, which puts It on the same 
footing with painting. The artist's productions 
stand before you, as if they were alive : but if you 
ask them anything, they keep a solemn silence. Just 
so with written discourse : you would fancy It full 
of the thoughts It speaks: but if you ask it some- 
thing that you want to know about what is said, it 

101 



THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

looks at you always with the same one sign. And, 
once committed to writing, discourse Is tossed 
about everywhere Indiscriminately, among those 
who understand and those to whom It Is naught, 
and who cannot select the fit from the unfit." Plato 
further complains, adds Mr. Martlneau, that 
'* Theuth, the Inventor of letters, had ruined men's 
memories and living command of their knowledge, 
by Inducing a lazy trust In records ready to their 
hand : and he limits the benefit of the litera scripta 
to the compensation It provides for the falling 
memory of old age, when reading naturally be- 
comes the great solace of life Plato's tone 

Is Invariably depreciatory of everything committed 
to writing, with the exception of laws." 

This wac also the early Rabbinical view, for 
while the Law might, nay, must, be written, the rest 
of the tradition was to be orally confided. The 
oral book was the specialty of the Rabbinical 
schools. We moderns, who are to the ancients. In 
Rabbinic phrase, as asses to angels In Intellect, can- 
not rely upon oral teaching— our memory Is too 
weak to bear the strain. Even when a student at- 
tends an oral lecture, he proves my point, because 
he takes notes. 

The Ideal lies, as usual, In a compromise. Read- 
102 



THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

Ing profits most when, beside the book, you have 
some one with whom to talk about the book. If 
that some one be the author of the book, good; if 
it be your teacher, better; if it be a fellow-student, 
better still; If it be members of your family circle, 
best of all. The teacher has only succeeded when 
he feels that his students can do without him, can 
use their books by themselves and for themselves. 
But personal intercourse in studies between equals 
is never obsolete. " Provide thyself with a fellow- 
student," said the Rabbi. Friendship made over a 
book is fast, enduring; this friendship is the great 
solace. How much we Jews have lost in modern 
times in having given up the old habit of reading 
good books together in the family circle ! Religious 
literature thus had a halo of home about it, and the 
halo never faded throughout life. From the pages 
of the book in after years the father's loving voice 
still spoke to his child. But when it comes to the 
author, I have doubts whether it be at all good to 
have him near you when you read his book. You 
may take an unfair advantage of him, and reject 
his book, because you find the writer personally 
antipathetic. Or he may take an unfair advantage 
of you, and control you by his personal fascination. 
You remember the critic of Demosthenes, who re- 

103 



THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

marked to him of a certain oration, " When I first 
read your speech, I was convinced, just as the Athe- 
nians were ; but when I read it again, I saw through 
its fallacies." " Yes," rejoined Demosthenes, 
" but the Athenians heard it only once." A book 
you read more than once: for you possess only 
what you understand. I do not doubt that the best 
readers are those who move least in literary circles, 
who are unprejudiced one way or the other by 
their personal likes or dislikes of literary men. 
How detestable are personal paragraphs about 
authors — often, alas ! autobiographical titbits. We 
expect a little more reticence : we expect the author 
to say what he has to say in his book, and not in his 
talks about his book and himself. We expect him 
to express himself and suppress himself. '' Respect 
the books," says Judah the Pious, " or you show 
disrespect to the writer." No, not to the writer, but 
to the soul whose progeny the book is, to the living 
intellect that bred It, in Milton's noble phrase, to 
" an Immortality rather than a life." " Many a 
man," he says, '' Hves a burden to the earth; but a 
good book is the precious life-blood of a master- 
spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a 
life beyond life." 

It is a sober truth that, of the books we chiefly 
104 



THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

love, we know least about the authors. Perpe- 
trating probably the only joke in his great Bodleian 
Catalogue, Dr. Steinschneider enters the Bible 
under the heading Anonyma, We are nowadays 
so concerned to know whether Moses or another 
wrote the Pentateuch, that we neglect the Penta- 
teuch as though no one had ever written It. What 
do we know about the personality of Shakespeare? 
Perhaps we are happy In our Ignorance. " Some- 
times," said Jonathan Swift, " I read a book with 
pleasure and detest the author." Most of us would 
say the same of Jonathan Swift himself, and all of 
us, I think, share R. L. Stevenson's resentment 
against a book with the portrait of a living author, 
and In a heightened degree against an English 
translation of an ancient Hebrew classic with the 
translator's portrait. Sometimes such a translator is 
the author; his rendering, at all events, Is not the 
classic. A certain FIdentinus once stole the work 
of the Roman poet Martial, and read It out to the 
assembly as his own; whereupon Martial wrote 
this epigram. 

The book you read is, FIdentinus, mine, 

Tho' read so badly, it well may pass for thine. 

But even apart from such bad taste as the afore- 
mentioned translator's, I do not like to see por- 

105 



THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

traits of living authors in their books. The author 
of a good book becomes your intimate, but it is the 
author as you know him from his book, not as you 
see him in the flesh or on a silver print. I quote 
Stevenson again : '* When you have read, you carry 
away with you a memory of the man himself; it is 
as though you had touched a loyal hand, looked 
into brave eyes, and made a noble friend; there is 
another bond on you thenceforward, binding you 
to life and to the love of virtue." 

This line of thought leads me to the further re- 
mark, that some part of the solace derived from 
books has changed its character since the art of 
printing was invented. In former times the per- 
sonality, if not of the author, at all events of the 
scribe, pressed itself perforce upon the reader. 
The reader had before him, not necessarily an 
autograph, but at all events a manuscript. Printing 
has suppressed this individuality, and the change is 
not all for the better. The evil consists in this, that 
whereas of old a book, being handwritten, was 
clearly recognized as the work of some one's hand, 
it now assumes, being printed, an impersonal im- 
portance, which may be beyond its deserts. Espe- 
cially is this the case with what we may term re- 
ligious authorities; we are now apt to forget that 

106 



THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

behind the authority there stands simply — the 
author. It Is Instructive to contrast the customary 
method of citing two great codlfiers of Jewish law 
— Maimonldes and Joseph Caro. Caro lived in 
the age of printing, and the Shulchan Ariich was 
the first great Jewish book composed after the 
printing-press was in operation. The result has 
been, that the Shulchan Aruch has become an Im- 
personal authority, rarely cited by the author's 
name, while the Mishneh Tor ah is mostly referred 
to as the Rambam, i. e. Maimonides. 

For all that, printing has been a gain, even from 
the point of view at which I have just arrived. Not 
only has It demolished the barrier which the scribe's 
personality Interposed between author and reader, 
but, by Increasing the number of readers, it has 
added to the solace of each. For the solace of 
books is never selfish — the book-miser is never the 
book-lover, nor does the mere collector of rarities 
and preciosities deserve that name, for the one 
hoards, but does not own; the other serves Mam- 
mon, not God. The modern cheapening of books 
— the immediate result of printing — not only ex- 
tends culture, it intensifies culture. Your joy in a 
book Is truest when the book is cheapest, when you 
know that It Is, or might be, in the hands of thou- 

107 



THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

sands of others, who go with you in the throng 
towards the same divine joy. 

These sentiments are clearly those of a Philis- 
tine. The fate of that last word, by the way, is 
curious. The Philistines, Mr. Macalister dis- 
covered when excavating Gezer, were the only 
artistic people in Palestine ! Using the term, how- 
ever, in the sense to which Matthew Arnold gave 
vogue, I am a Philistine in taste, I suppose, for I 
never can bring myself nowadays to buy a second- 
hand book. For dusty old tomes, I go to the public 
library; but my own private books must be sweet 
and clean. There are many who prefer old copies, 
who revel in the inscribed names of former owners, 
and prize their marginal annotations. If there be 
some special sentimental associations connected 
with these factors, if the books be heirlooms, and 
the annotations come from a vanished, but beloved, 
hand, then the old book becomes an old love. But 
in most cases these things seem to me the defects 
of youth, not the virtues of age ; for they are usu- 
ally too recent to be venerable, though they are 
just old enough to disfigure. Let my books be 
young, fresh, and fragrant in their virgin purity, 
unspotted from the world. If my copy is to be 
soiled, I want to do all the soiling myself. It is 

108 



THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

very different with a manuscript, which cannot be 
too old or too dowdy. These are its graces. Dr. 
Neubauer once said to me, " I take no interest in a 
girl who has seen more than seventeen years, nor 
in a manuscript that has seen less than seven hun- 
dred." Alonzo of Aragon was wont to say in com- 
mendation of age, that " age appeared to be best 
in four things : old wood to burn ; old wine to drink; 
old friends to trust; and old authors to read." 

This, however, is not my present point, for I 
have too much consideration for my readers to 
attempt to embroil them in the old " battle of the 
books " that raged round the silly question whether 
the ancients or the moderns wrote better. I am 
discussing the age, not of the author, but of the 
copy. As a critic, as an admirer of old printing, as 
an archeologist, I feel regard for the editio prin- 
ceps, but as a lover I prefer the cheap reprint. Old 
manuscripts certainly have their charm, but they 
must have been written at least before the invention 
of printing. Otherwise a manuscript is an anachro- 
nism — it recalls too readily the editorial " declined 
with thanks." At best, the autograph original of 
a modern work Is a literary curiosity, it reveals the 
author's mechanism, not his mind. But old manu- 
scripts are in a different case ; their age has Increased 

m 



THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

their charm, mellowed and confirmed their graces, 
whether they be canonical books, which *' defile the 
hand " in the Rabbinical sense, or Genizah-grimed 
fragments, which soil the fingers more literally. 
And when the dust of ages is removed, these old- 
world relics renew their youth, and stand forth as 
witnesses to Israel's unshakable devotion to his 
heritage. 

I have confessed to one Philistine habit; let me 
plead guilty to another. I prefer to read a book 
rather than hear a lecture, because in the case of 
the book I can turn to the last page first. I do like 
to know before I start whether he marries her in 
the end or not. You cannot do this with a spoken 
discourse, for you have to wait the lecturer's pleas- 
ure, and may discover to your chagrin, not only 
that the end Is very long in coming, but that when 
It does come, it Is of such a nature that, had you 
foreseen it, you would certainly not have been pres- 
ent at the beginning. The real interest of a love 
story Is Its process : though you may read the con- 
summation first, you are still anxious as to the 
course of the courtship. But, In sober earnest, 
those people err who censure readers for trying to 
peep at the last page first. For this much-abused 
habit has a deep significance when applied to life. 

110 



THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

You will remember the ritual rule, " It Is the cus- 
tom of all Israel for the reader of the Scroll of 
Esther to read and spread out the Scroll like a 
letter, to make the miracle visible." I remember 
hearing a sermon just before Purim, In Vienna, and 
the Jewish preacher gave an admirable homlletic 
explanation of this rule. He pointed out that In 
the story of Esther the fate of the Jews has very- 
dark moments, destruction faces them, and hope Is 
remote. But In the end? In the end all goes well. 
Now, by spreading out the MegUlah In folds, dis- 
playing the end with the beginning, " the miracle 
Is made visible." Once Lord Salisbury, when some 
timid Englishmen regarded the approach of the 
Russians to India as a menace, told his countrymen 
to use large-scale maps, for these would convince 
them that the Russians were not so near India after 
all. We Jews suffer from the same nervousness. 
We need to use large-scale charts of human history. 
We need to read history In centuries, not In years. 
Then we should see things In their true perspective, 
with God changeless, as men move down the ring- 
ing grooves of change. We should then be fuller 
of content and confidence. We might gain a 
glimpse of the Divine plan, and might perhaps get 
out of our habit of crying " All is lost '* at every 

111 



THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

passing persecution. As if never before had there 
been weeping for a night ! As if there had not al- 
ways been abounding joy the morning after ! Then 
let us, like God Himself, try to see the end in the 
beginning, let us spread out the Scroll, so that the 
glory of the finish may transfigure and illumine the 
gloom and sadness of the intermediate course, and 
thus " the miracle " of God's providential love will 
be " made visible " to all who have eyes to see it. 

What strikes a real lover of books when he casts 
his eye over the fine things that have been said 
about reading, is this : there is too much said about 
profit, about advantage. " Reading," said Bacon, 
" maketh a full man," and reading has been justi- 
fied a thousand times on this famous plea. But, 
some one else, I forget who, says, " You may as 
well expect to become strong by always eating, as 
wise by always reading." Herbert Spencer was 
once blamed by a friend for reading so little. Spen- 
cer replied, " If I read as much as you do, I should 
know as little as you do." Too many of the eu- 
logies of books are utilitarian. A book has been 
termed " the home traveller's ship or horse," and 
libraries, " the wardrobes of literature." Another 
favorite phrase is Montaigne's, " 'Tis the best 
viaticum for this human journey," a phrase paral- 

112 



THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

leled by the Rabbinic use of the Biblical '* proven- 
der for the way." " The aliment of youth, the 
comfort of old age," so Cicero terms books. " The 
sick man is not to be pitied when he has his cure in 
his sleeve " — that is where they used to carry their 
books. But I cannot go through the long list of 
the beautiful, yet inadequate, similes that abound 
in the works of great men, many of which can be 
read in the " Book-Lover's Enchiridion," to which 
I have already alluded. 

One constant comparison is of books to friends. 
This is perhaps best worked out in one of the 
Epistles of Erasmus, which the " Enchiridion " 
omits: " You want to know what I am doing. I 
devote myself to my friends, with whom I enjoy 
the most delightful intercourse. With them I shut 
myself in some corner, where I avoid the gaping 
crowd, and either speak to them in sweet whispers, 
or listen to their gentle voices, talking with them 
as with myself. Can anything be more convenient 
than this? They never hide their own secrets, 
while they keep sacred whatever is entrusted to 
them. They speak when bidden, and when not 
bidden they hold their tongue. They talk of what 
you wish, and as long as you wish; do not flatter, 
feign nothing, keep back nothing, freely tell you of 
8 113 



THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

your faults, and take no man's character away. 
What they say is either amusing or wholesome. In 
prosperity they moderate, in affliction they console ; 
they do not vary with fortune, they follow you in 
all dangers, and last out to the very grave. Noth- 
ing can be more candid than their relations with 
one another. I visit them from time to time, now 
choosing one companion and now another, with 
perfect impartiality. With these humble friends, 
I bury myself in seclusion. What wealth or what 
sceptres would I take in exchange for this tranquil 
life?" 

Tranquillity is a not unworthy characteristic 
of the scholar, but, taking Erasmus at his word, 
would he not have been even a greater man than 
he was, had he been less tranquil and more strenu- 
ous? His great role in the history of European 
culture would have been greater still, had he been 
readier to bear the rubs which come from rough 
contact with the world. I will not, however, allow 
myself to be led off into this alluring digression, 
whether books or experience make a man wiser. 
Books may simply turn a man Into a " learned 
fool," and, on the other hand, experience may 
equally fail to teach any of the lessons of wisdom. 
As Moore says : 

114 



THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

My only books 

Were woman's looks, 

And folly's all they taught me. 

The so-called men of the world often know little 
enough of the world of men. It Is a delusion 
to think that the business man is necessarily busi- 
ness-like. Your business man is often the most un- 
business-like creature imaginable. For practical 
ability, give me the man of letters. Life among 
books often leads to insight Into the book of life. 
At Cambridge we speak of the reading men 
and the sporting men. Sir Richard Jebb, when he 
went to Cambridge, was asked, " Do you mean to 
be a sporting man or a reading man? " He re- 
plied, " Neither ! I want to be a man who reads.'* 
Marcus Aurellus, the scholar and philosopher, was 
not the least efficient of the Emperors of Rome. 
James Martlneau was right when he said that the 
student not only becomes a better man, but he also 
becomes a better student, when he concerns himself 
with the practical affairs of life as well as with his 
books. And the idea cuts both ways. We should 
be better men of business If we were also men of 
books. It IS not necessary to recall that the ancient 
Rabbis were not professional bookmen. They were 
smiths and ploughmen, traders and merchants, and 

115 



THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

their businesses and their trades were idealized and 
ennobled — and, may we not add, their handiwork 
improved? — by the expenditure of their leisure in 
the schools and libraries of Jerusalem. 

And so all the foregoing comparisons between 
books and other objects of utility or delight, charm- 
ing though some of these comparisons are, fail to 
satisfy one. One feels that the old Jewish concep- 
tion is the only completely true one: that concep- 
tion which came to its climax in the appointment 
of a benediction to be uttered before beginning to 
read a book of the Law. 

The real solace of books comes from the sense 
of service, to be rendered or received; and one 
must enter that holy of holies, the library, with 
a grateful benediction on one's lip, and humility 
and reverence and joy in one's soul. Of all the 
writers about books, Charles Lamb, in his playful 
way, comes nearest to this old-world, yet imperish- 
able, ideal of the Jewish sages. He says : '' I own 
that I am disposed to say grace upon twenty other 
occasions in the course of the day besides my din- 
ner. I want a form for setting out on a pleasant 
walk, for a midnight ramble, for a friendly meet- 
ing, for a solved problem. Why have we none 
for books, those spiritual repasts — a grace before 

116 



THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

Milton, — a grace before Shakespeare, — a devo- 
tional exercise proper to be said before reading the 
Fairy Queen?" The Jewish ritual could have 
supplied Lamb with several of these graces. 

It will, I hope, now be seen why In speaking on 
the solace of books I have said so little about con- 
solation. It pains me to hear books praised as a 
relief from worldly cares, to hear the library lik- 
ened to an asylum for broken spirits. I have 
never been an admirer of Boethius. His " Conso- 
lations of Philosophy " have always been Influential 
and popular, but I like better the first famous Eng- 
lish translator than the original Latin author. 
Boethius wrote In the sixth century as a fallen man, 
as one to whom philosophy came in lieu of the 
mundane glory which he had once possessed, and 
had now lost. But Alfred the Great turned the 
" Consolations " into English at the moment of his 
greatest power. He translated It in the year 886, 
when king on a secure throne ; In his brightest days, 
when the Danish clouds had cleared. Sorrow has 
often produced great books, great psalms, to which 
the sorrowful heart turns for solace. But In the 
truest sense the Shechlnah rests on man only in his 
joy, when he has so attuned his life that misfor- 
tune Is but another name for good fortune. He 

117 



THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

must have learned to endure before he seeks the 
solace of communion with the souls of the great, 
with the soul of God. Very saddening it is to note 
how often men have turned to books because life 
has no other good. The real book-lover goes to 
his books when life is fullest of other joys, when 
his life is richest in its manifold happiness. Then 
he adds the crown of joy to his other joys, and 
finds the highest happiness. 

I do not like to think of the circumstances under 
which Sir Thomas Bodley went to Oxford to found 
his famous library. Not till his diplomatic career 
was a failure, not till Elizabeth's smiles had dark- 
ened into frowns, did he set up his staff at the 
library door. But Bodley rather mistook himself. 
As a lad the library had been his joy, and when he 
was abroad, at the summit of his public fame, he 
turned his diplomatic missions to account by col- 
lecting books and laying the foundation of his 
future munificence. I even think that no lover of 
books ever loved them so well in his adversity as in 
his prosperity. Another view was held by Don 
Isaac Abarbanel, the famous Jewish statesman and 
litterateur. Under Alfonso V, of Portugal, and other 
rulers, he attained high place, but was brought 
low by the Inquisition, and shared in the expulsion 

118 



THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

of his brethren. He writes in one of his letters: 
^' The whole time I lived in the courts and palaces 
of kings, occupied in their service, I had no leisure 
to read or write books. My days were spent in 
vain ambitions, seeking after wealth and honor. 
Now that my wealth is gone, and honor has become 
exiled from Israel; now that I am a vagabond and 
a wanderer on the earth, and I have no money: 
now, I have returned to seek the book of God, as it 
is said, ^Jnp ^i^ni ^^idhd nion, ' He is in sore need, 
therefore he studies.' " 

This is witty, but it is not wise. Fortunately, it 
is not quite true; Abarbanel does little justice to 
himself in this passage, for elsewhere (in the pref- 
ace to his Commentary on Kings) he draws a 
very different picture of his life in his brilliant court 
days. " My house," he says, " was an assembly 
place for the wise .... in my abode and within 
my walls were wealth and fame for the Torah and 
for those made great in its lore." Naturally, the 
active statesman had less leisure for his books than 
the exiled, fallen minister. 

So, too, with an earlier Jewish writer, Saadia. 
No sadder title was ever chosen for a work than 
his Sefer ha-Galui — " Book of the Exiled." It is 
beyond our province to enter into his career, full 

119 



THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

of Stress and storm. Betwen 933 and 937, driven 
from power, he retired to his library at Bagdad, 
just as Cinclnnatus withdrew to his farm when 
Rome no longer needed him. During his retire- 
ment Saadla's best books were written. Why? 
Graetz tells us that " Saadla was still under the 
ban of excommunication. He had, therefore, no 
other sphere of action than that of an author.'* 
This Is pitiful; but, again. It Is not altogether true. 
Saadla's whole career was that of active author- 
ship, when In power and out of power, as a boy, In 
middle life. In age: his constant thought was the 
service of truth. In so far as literature can serve It, 
and one may well think that he felt that the Crown 
of the Law was better worth wearing In prosperity, 
when he chose It out of other crowns, than In ad- 
versity, when It was the only crown within his 
reach. It was thus that King Solomon chose. 

So, In speaking of the solace of books, I have 
ventured to employ " solace " In an old, unusual 
sense. *' Solace " has many meanings. It means 
" comfort In sorrow,'* and In Scotch law It denotes 
a compensation for wounded feelings, solatium, 
moral and Intellectual damages In short. But In 
Chaucer and Spenser, " solace " Is sometimes used 
as a synonym for joy and sweet exhilaration. This 

120 



THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

Is an obsolete use, but let me hope that the thing is 
not obsolete. For one must go to his books for 
solace, not in mourning garb, but In gayest attire — 
to a wedding, not to a funeral. When John Clare 
wrote, 

I read in books for happiness, 
But books mistake the way to joy, 

he read for what he ought to have brought, and 
thus he failed to find his goal. The library has been 
beautifully termed the " bridal chamber of the 
mind." So, too, the Apocrypha puts it in the 
Wisdom of Solomon : 

Wisdom is radiant 

Her I loved and sought out from my youth, 
And I sought to take her for my bride, 
And I became enamored of her beauty. 



When I am come into my house, I shall find rest with her, 
For converse with her hath no bitterness, 
And to live with her hath no pain. 

O God of the fathers, .... 

Give me wisdom, that sitteth by Thee on Thy throne. 
[Notes, pp. 303-304] 



121 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

Men leave their homes because they must, or be- 
cause they will. The Hebrew has experienced 
both motives for travelling. Irresistibly driven on 
by his own destiny and by the pressure of his fel- 
low-men, the Jew was also gifted with a double 
share of that curiosity and restlessness which often 
send men forth of their own free will on long and 
arduous journeys. He has thus played the part of 
the Wandering Jew from choice and from neces- 
sity. He loved to live in the whole world, and the 
whole world met him by refusing him a single spot 
that he might call his very own. 

Tribes of the wandering foot and weary breast, 
How shall ye flee away and be at rest ! 
The wild-dove hath her nest, the fox her cave, 
Mankind their country, — Israel but the grave ! 

A sad chapter of medieval history is filled with the 
enforced wanderings of the sons of Israel. The 
lawgiver prophesied well, " There shall be no rest 
for the sole of thy foot." But we are not concerned 
here with the victim of expulsion and persecution. 

122 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

The wayfarer with whom we shall deal is the 
traveller, and not the exile. He was moved by no 
caprice but his own. He will excite our admira- 
tion, perhaps our sympathy, only rarely our tears. 

My subject, be it remembered, is not wayfarers, 
but wayfaring. Hence I am to tell you not the 
story of particular travellers, but the manner of 
their travelling, the conditions under which they 
moved. Before leaving home, a Jewish wayfarer 
of the Middle Ages was bound to procure two 
kinds of passport. In no country in those days was 
freedom of motion allowed to anyone. The Jew 
was simply a little more hampered than others. In 
England, the Jew paid a feudal fine before he 
might cross the seas. In Spain, the system of ex- 
actions was very complete. No Jew could change 
his residence without a license even within his own 
town. But in addition to the inflictions of the Gov- 
ernment, the Jews enacted voluntary laws of their 
own, forcing their brethren to obtain a congrega- 
tional permit before starting. 

The reasons for this restriction were simple. In 
the first place, no Jew could be allowed to depart 
at will, and leave the whole burden of the royal 
taxes on the shoulders of those who were left be- 
hind. Hence, In many parts of Europe and Asia, 

123 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

no Jew could leave without the express consent of 
the congregation. Even when he received the con- 
sent, it was usually on the understanding that he 
would continue, In his absence, to pay his share of 
the communal dues. Sometimes even women were 
Included in this law, as, for instance, if the daughter 
of a resident Jew married and settled elsewhere, 
she was forced to contribute to the taxes of her 
native town a sum proportionate to her dowry, un- 
less she emigrated to Palestine, in which case she 
was free. A further cause why Jews placed re- 
strictions on free movement was moral and com- 
mercial. Announcements had to be made In the 
synagogue informing the congregation that so-and- 
so was on the point of departure, and anyone with 
claims against him could obtain satisfaction. No 
clandestine or unauthorized departure was permis- 
sible. It must not be thought that these communal 
licenses were of no service to the traveller. On the 
contrary, they often assured him a welcome in the 
next town, and In Persia were as good as a safe- 
conduct. No Mohammedan would have dared 
defy the travelling order sealed by the Jewish 
Patriarch. 

Having obtained his two licenses, one from the 
Government and the other from the Synagogue, the 

124 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

traveller would have to consider his costume. 
*' Dress shabbily " was the general Jewish maxim 
for the tourist. How necessary this rule was, may 
be seen from what happened to Rabbi Petachiah, 
who travelled from Prague to Nineveh, in 1175, or 
thereabouts. At Nineveh he fell sick, and the 
king's physicians attended him and pronounced his 
death certain. Now Petachiah had travelled In 
most costly attire, and In Persia the rule was that 
If a Jewish traveller died, the physicians took half 
his property. Petachiah saw through the real dan- 
ger that threatened him, so he escaped from the 
perilous ministrations of the royal doctors, had 
himself carried across the Tigris on a raft, and soon 
recovered. Clearly, it was imprudent of a Jewish 
traveller to excite the rapacity of kings or bandits 
by wearing rich dresses. But It was also desirable 
for the Jew, If he could, to evade recognition as 
such altogether. Jewish opinion was very sensible 
on this head. It did not forbid a Jew's disguising 
himself even as a priest of the Church, joining a 
caravan, and mum^bllng Latin hymns. In times of 
danger, he might, to save his life, don the turban 
and pass as a Mohammedan even In his home. 
Most remarkable concession of all, the Jewess on 
a journey might wear the dress of a man. The law 

125 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

of the land was equally open to reason. In Spain, 
the Jew was allowed to discard his yellow badge 
while travelling; In Germany, he had the same 
privilege, but he had to pay a premium for it. In 
some parts, the Jewish community as a whole 
bought the right to travel and to discard the badge 
on journeys, paying a lump sum for the general 
privilege, and itself exacting a communal tax 
to defray the general cost. In Rome, the traveller 
was allowed to lodge for ten days before resuming 
his hated badge. But, curiously enough, the legal 
relaxation concerning the badge was not extended 
to the markets. The Jew made the medieval mar- 
kets, yet he was treated as an unwelcome guest, a 
commodity to be taxed. This was especially so in 
Germany. In 1226, Bishop Lorenz, of Breslau, 
ordered Jews who passed through his domain to 
pay the same toll as slaves brought to market. The 
visiting Jew paid toll for everything; but he got 
part of his money back. He received a yellow 
badge, which he was forced to wear during his 
whole stay at the market, the finances of which he 
enriched. Indirectly by his trade, and directly by 
his huge contributions to the local taxes. 

The Jewish traveller mostly left his wife at 
home. In certain circumstances he could force her 

126 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

to go with him, as, for Instance, if he had resolved 
to settle In Palestine. On the other hand, the wife 
could prevent her husband from leaving her dur- 
ing the first year after marriage. It also happened 
that families emigrated together. Mostly, however, 
the Jewess remained at home, and only rarely did 
she join even the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. This is 
a striking contrast to the Christian custom, for it 
was the Christian woman that was the most ardent 
pilgrim ; in fact, pilgrimages to the Holy Land only 
became popular in Church circles because of the en- 
thusiasm of Helena, mother of Constantine the 
Great, especially when, in 326, she found the true 
cross. We, however, read of an aged Jewess who 
made a pilgrimage to all the cities of Europe, for 
the purpose of praying in the synagogues on her 
route. 

We now know, from the Chronicle of Achlmaaz, 
that Jews visited Jerusalem in the tenth century. 
Aronius records a curious incident. Charles the 
Great, between the years 787 and 813, ordered a 
Jewish merchant, who often used to visit Palestine 
and bring precious and unknown commodities 
thence to the West, to hoax the Archbishop of 
Mainz, so as to lower the self-conceit of this vain 
dilettante. The Jew thereupon sold him a mouse 

127 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

at a high price, persuading him that It was a rare 
animal, which he had brought with him from 
Judea. Early in the eleventh century there was a 
fully organized Jewish community with a Beth- 
Din at Ramleh, some four hours' drive from 
Jaffa. But Jews did not visit Palestine in large 
numbers, until Saladin finally regained the Holy 
City for Mohammedan rule, towards the end of 
the twelfth century. From that time pilgrimages 
of Jews became more frequent; but the real Influx 
of Jews Into Palestine dates from 1492, when many 
of the Spanish exiles settled there, and formed the 
nucleus of the present Sefardic population. 

On the whole, it may be said that in the Middle 
Ages the journey to Palestine was fraught with so 
much danger that It was gallantry that induced men 
to go mostly without their wives. And, generally 
speaking, the Jew going abroad to earn a living for 
his family, could not dream of allowing his wife to 
share the dangers and fatigues of the way. In 
Ellul, 1 146, Rabbi Simeon the Pious returned from 
England, where he had lived many years, and be- 
took himself to Cologne, thence to take ship home 
to Trier. On the way, near Cologne, he was slain 
by Crusaders, because he refused baptism. The 
Jewish community of Cologne bought the body 

128 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

from the citizens, and buried it in the Jewish ceme- 
tery. 

No doubt it was often a cruel necessity that sep- 
arated husband and wife. The Jewish law, even 
in lands where monogamy was not legally enforced, 
did not allow the Jew, however, to console himself 
with one wife at home and another abroad. Jo- 
sephus, we know, had one wife in Tiberias and an- 
other in Alexandria, and the same thing is told us 
of royal officers in the Roman period; but the Tal- 
mudic legislation absolutely forbids such license, 
even though It did not formally prohibit a man 
from having m.ore than one wife at home. We 
hear occasionally of the wife's growing restive in 
her husband's absence and taklnor another husband. 
In 1272, Isaac of Erfurt went on a trading jour- 
ney, and though he was only gone from March 9, 
1 27 1, to July, 1272, he found, on his return, that 
his wife had wearied of waiting for him. Such In- 
cidents on the side of the wife were very rare; the 
number of cases in which wife-desertion occurred 
was larger. In her husband's absence, the wife's 
lot, at best, was not happy. " Come back," wrote 
one wife, '' or send me a divorce." " Nay," re- 
plied the husband, " I can do neither. I have not 
yet made enough provision for us, so I cannot re- 
9 129 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

turn. And, before Heaven, I love you, so I cannot 
divorce you." The Rabbi advised that he should 
give her a conditional divorce, a kindly device, 
which provided that, in case the husband remained 
away beyond a fixed date, the wife was free to make 
other matrimonial arrangements. The Rabbis 
held that travelling diminishes family life, prop- 
erty, and reputation. Move from house to house, 
and you lose a shirt; go from place to place, and 
you lose a life — so ran the Rabbinic proverb. This 
subject might be enlarged upon, but enough has 
been said to show that this breaking up of the 
family life was one of the worst effects of the Jew- 
ish travels of the Middle Ages, and even more re- 
cent times. % 

Whether his journey was devotional or com- 
mercial, the rites of religion formed part of the 
traveller's preparations for the start. The Prayer 
for Wayfarers is Talmudic in origin. It may be 
found in many prayer books, and I need not quote 
it. But one part of it puts so well, in a few preg- 
nant words, the whole story of danger, that I must 
reproduce them. On approaching a town, the Jew 
prayed, " May it be Thy will, O Lord, to bring 
m.e safely to this town." When he had entered, he 
prayed, " May it be Thy will, O Lord, to take 

130 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

me safely from this town." And when he actually 
left, he uttered similar words, pathetic and pain- 
fully significant. 

In the first century of the Christian era, much 
travelling was entailed by the conveyance of the 
didrachmon, sent by each Jew to the Temple from 
almost every part of the known world. Philo 
says of the Jews beyond the Euphrates: " Every 
year the sacred messengers are sent to convey large 
sums of gold and silver to the Temple, which have 
been collected from all the subordinate Govern- 
ments. They travel over rugged and difficult and 
almost impassable roads, which, however, they 
look upon as level and easy, inasmuch as they serve 
to conduct them to piety." And the road was 
made easy in other ways. 

It must often have been shortened to the imagi- 
nation by the prevalent belief that by supernatural 
aid the miles could be actually lessened. Rabbi 
Natronai was reported to be able to convey himself 
a several days' journey m a single instant. So Ben- 
jamin of Tudela tells how Alroy, who claimed to 
be the Messiah in the twelfth century, not only 
could make himself visible or invisible at will, but 
could cross rivers on his turban, and, by the aid of 
the Divine Nam.e, could travel a ten days' journey 

131 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

in ten hours. Another Jewish traveller calmed 
the sea by naming God, another by writing the 
sacred Name on a shard, and casting it into the 
sea. '' Have no care," said he, on another occa- 
sion, to his Arab comrade, as the shadows fell on 
a Friday afternoon, and they were still far from 
home, " have no care, we shall arrive before night- 
fall," and, exercising his wonderworking powers, 
he was as good as his word. We read in Achi- 
maaz of the exploits of a tenth-century Jew who 
traversed Italy, working wonders, being received 
everywhere with popular acclamations. This was 
Aaron of Bagdad, son of a miller, who, finding that 
a lion had eaten the mill-mule, caught the lion and 
made him do the grinding. His father sent him on 
his travels as a penalty for his dealings with magic : 
after three years he might return. He went on 
board a ship, and assured the sailors that they need 
fear neither foe nor storm, for he could use the 
Name. He landed at Gaeta in Italy, where he 
restored to human form the son of his host, whom 
a witch had turned into an ass. This was the be- 
ginning of many miracles. But he did not allow 
one place to monopohze him. Next vv^e find him 
In Benvenuto. He goes to the synagogue, recog- 
nizes that a lad omits the name of God from his 

132 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

prayer, thus showing that he is dead ! He goes to 
Oria, then to Bari, and so forth. Similar marvels 
were told in the Midrash, of travellers like Father 
Jacob, and in the lives of Christian saints. 

But the Jew had a real means of shortening the 
way — by profitable and edifying conversation. 
" Do not travel with an Am ha-Arez," the olden 
Rabbis advised. Such a one, they held, was care- 
less of his own safety, and would hardly be more 
careful of his com.panion's life. But, besides, an 
Am ha-Arez, using the word in its later sense of 
ignoramus, would be too dull for edifying conver- 
sation, and one maght as well or as ill journey 
alone as with a boor. But " thou shalt speak of 
them by the way," says Deuteronomy of the com- 
mandments, and this (to say nothing of the dan- 
ger) was one of the reasons why solitary travelling 
was disapproved. A man walking alone was more 
likely to turn his mind to idle thoughts, than if he 
had a congenial partner to converse with, and the 
Mishnah is severe against him who turns aside 
from his peripatetic study to admire a tree or a 
fallow. This does not imply that the Jews were 
indifferent to the beauties of nature. Jewish travel- 
lers often describe the scenery of the parts they 
visit, and Petachiah literally revels in the beautiful 

133 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

gardens of Persia, v/hlch he paints in vivid colors. 
Then, again, few better descriptions of a storm at 
sea have been written than those composed by 
Jehudah Halevi on his fatal voyage to Palestine. 
Similarly, Charizi, another Jewish wayfarer, who 
laughed himself over half the world, wrote verses 
as he walked, to relieve the tedium. Pie Is perhaps 
the most entertaining of all Jewish travellers. 
Nothing Is more amusing than his conscious habit 
of judging the characters of the men he saw by their 
hospitality, or the reverse, to himself. A more 
serious traveller, Maimonides, must have done a 
good deal of thinking on horseback, to get through 
his ordinary day's work and write his great books. 
In fact, he himself Informs us that he composed 
part of his Commentary to the Mishnah while jour- 
neying by land and sea. In Europe, the Rabbis 
often had several neighboring congregations under 
their care, and on their journeys to and fro took 
their books with them, and read In them at Inter- 
vals. Maharll, on such journeys, always took note 
of the Jewish customs observed In different locali- 
ties. He was also a most skilful and successful 
Shadchan, or marriage -broker, and his extensive 
travels placed this famous Rabbi In an excellent 
position for match-making. Certainly, the mar- 

134 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

riages he effected were notoriously prosperous, and 
In his hands the Shadchan system did the most good 
and the least harm of which it is capable. 

Another type of short-distance traveller was the 
Bachur, or student. Not that his journeys were 
always short, but he rarely crossed the sea. In the 
second century we find Jewish students in Galilee 
behaving as many Scotch youths did before the 
days of Carnegie funds. These students would 
study in Sepphoris in the winter, and work in the 
fields in summer. After the impoverishment 
caused by the Bar-Cochba war, the students were 
glad to dine at the table of the wealthy Patriarch 
Judah I. In the medieval period there were also 
such. These Bachurim, who, young as they were, 
w^ere often married, accomplished enormous jour- 
neys on foot. They walked from the Rhine to 
Vienna, and from North Germany to Italy. Their 
privations on the road were Indescribable. Bad 
weather was naturally a severe trial. " Hearken 
not to the prayers of wayfarers,'' was the petition 
of those who stayed at home. This quaint Tal- 
mudic saying refers to the selfishness of travellers, 
who always clamor for fine weather, though the 
farmer needs rain. Apart from the weather, the 
Bachurim suffered much on the road. Their ordi- 

135 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

nary food was raw vegetables culled from the 
fields; they drank nothing but water. They were 
often accompanied by their teachers, who under- 
went the sam.e privations. Unlike their Talmudl- 
cal precursors, they travelled much by night, be- 
cause it was safer, and also because they reserved 
the daylight for study. The dietary laws make 
Jewish travelling particularly irksome. We do, 
indeed, find Jews lodging at the ordinary Inns, but 
they could not join the general company at the 
table d'hote. The Sabbath, too, was the cause of 
some discomfort, though the traveller always ex- 
erted his utmost efforts to reach a Jewish congre- 
tion by Friday evening, sometimes, as we have 
seen, with supernatural aid. 

We must Interrupt this account of the Bachur to 
record a much earlier instance of the awkward 
situation in which a pious Jewish traveller might 
find himself because of the Sabbath regulations. 
In the very last year of the fourth century, Syne- 
sius, of Cyrene, writing to his brother of his voy- 
age from Alexandria to Constantinople, supplies 
us v/ith a quaint Instance of the manner In which 
the Sabbath affected Jewish travellers. Synesius 
uses a sarcastic tone, which must not be taken as 
seriously unfriendly. " His voyage homeward," 

136 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

says Mr. Glover, " was adventurous." It Is a pity 
that space cannot be found for a full citation of 
Syneslus's enthralling narrative. His Jewish steers- 
man Is an entertaining character. There were 
twelve members In the crew, the steersman making 
the thirteenth. More than half. Including the 
steersman, were Jews. " It was," says Syneslus, 
'* the day which the Jews call the Preparation 
[Friday], and they reckon the night to the next 
day, on which they are not allowed to do any work, 
but they pay It especial honor, and rest on It. So 
the steersman let go the helm from his hands, 
when he thought the sun would have set on the 
land, and threw himself down, and ' What mari- 
ner should choose might trample him ! ' We did 
not at first understand the real reason, but took It 
for despair, and went to him and besought him not 
to give up all hope yet. For In plain fact the big 
rollers still kept on, and the sea was at Issue with 
Itself. It does this when the wind fails, and the 
waves it has set going do not fall v/Ith it, but, still 
retaining In full force the Impulse that started 
them, meet the onset of the gale, and to Its front 
oppose their own. Well, when people are sailing 
in such circumstances, life hangs, as they say, by a 
slender thread. But if the steersman Is a Rabbi 

137 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

into the bargain, what are one's feelings? When, 
then, we understood what he meant in leaving the 
helm, — for when we begged him to save the ship 
from danger, he went on reading his book, — we 
despaired of persuasion, and tried force. And a 
gallant soldier (for we have with us a good few 
Arabians, who belong to the cavalry) drew his 
sword, and threatened to cut his head off, if he 
would not steer the ship. But in a moment he was 
a genuine Maccabee, and would stick to his dogma. 
Yet when it was now midnight, he took his place 
of his own accord, ' for now,' says he, ' the law 
allows me, as we are clearly in danger of our 
lives.' At that the tumult begins again, moaning 
of men and screaming of women. Everybody be- 
gan calling on Heaven, and walling and remem- 
bering their dear ones. Amarantus alone was 
cheerful, thinking he was on the point of ruling 
out his creditors." Amarantus was the captain, 
who wished to die, because he was deep in debt. 
What with the devil-may-care captain, the Macca- 
bean steersman, and the critical onlooker, who was 
a devoted admirer of Hypatia, rarely has wayfar- 
ing been conducted under more delightful condi- 
tions. As is often the case in life, the humors of 
the scene almost obscure the fact that the lives of 

138 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

the actors were In real danger. But all ended well. 
'' As for us," says Synesius further on, '' as soon 
as we reached the land we longed for, we embraced 
it as If It had been a living mother. Offering, as 
usual, a hymn of gratitude to God, I added to it 
the recent misadventure from which we had unex- 
pectedly been saved." 

To return to our travelling Bachur of later cen- 
turies than Syneslus's Rabbi-steersman. On the 
road, the student was often attacked, but, as hap- 
pened with the son of the great Asherl, who was 
waylaid by bandits near Toledo, the robbers did 
not always get the best of the fight. The Bachur 
could take his own part. One Jew gained much 
notoriety in 80 1 by conducting an elephant all the 
way from Haroun al-Rashid's court as a present 
to Charlemagne, the king of the Franks. But the 
Rabbi suffered considerably from his religion on 
his journeys. Dr. Schechter tells us how the Gaon 
Elijah got out of his carriage to say his prayer, 
and, as the driver knew that the Rabbi would not 
interrupt his devotions, he promptly made off, 
carrying away the Gaon's property. 

But the account was not all on one side. If the 
Bachur suffered for his religion, he received ample 
compensation. When he arrived at his destlna- 

139 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

tlon, he was welcomed right heartily. We read 
how cordially the Sheliach Kolel was received in 
Algiers in the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries. It 
was a great popular event, as is nowadays the visit 
of the Alliance inspector. This was not the case 
with all Jewish travellers, some of whom received 
a very cold shoulder from their brethren. Why 
was this? Chiefly because the Jews, as little as 
the rest of medieval peoples, realized that progress 
and enlightenment are indlssolubly bound up with 
the right of free movement. They regarded the 
right to move here and there at will as a selfish 
privilege of the few, not the just right of all. But 
more than that. The Jews were forced to live in 
special and limited Ghettos. It was not easy to 
find room for newcomers. When a crisis arrived, 
such as the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, then, 
except here and there, the Jews were generous to a 
fault in providing for the exiles. Societies all over 
the Continent and round the coast of the Mediter- 
ranean spent their time and money in ransoming 
the poor victims, who, driven from Spain, were 
enslaved by the captains of the vessels that carried 
them, and were then bought back to freedom by 
their Jewish brethren. 

This Is a noble fact in Jewish history. But It is 
140 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

nevertheless true that Jewish communities were 
reluctant in ordinary times to permit new settle- 
ments. This was not so in ancient times. Among 
the Essenes, a newcomer had a perfectly equal 
right to share everything with the old inhabitants. 
These Essenes were great travellers, going from 
city to city, probably with propagandist aims. In 
the Talmudic law there are very clear rules on the 
subject of passers through a town or immigrants 
into it. By that law persons staying in a place for 
less than thirty days were free from all local dues 
except special collections for the poor. He who 
stayed less than a year contributed to the ordinary 
poor relief, but was not taxed for permanent ob- 
jects, such as walling the town, defences, etc., nor 
did he contribute to the salaries of teachers and 
officials, nor the building and support of syna- 
gogues. But as his duties were small, so were his 
rights. After a twelve months' stay he became a 
'* son of the city," a full member of the commun- 
ity. But in the Middle Ages, newcomers, as al- 
ready said, were not generally welcome. The ques- 
tion of space was one important reason, for all 
newcomers had to stay in the Ghetto. Secondly, 
the newcomer was not amenable to discipline. 
Local custom varied much in the details both of 

141 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

Jewish and general law. The new settler might 
claim to retain his old customs, and the regard for 
local custom was so strong that the claim was often 
allowed, to the destruction of uniformity and the 
undermining of authority. To give an instance or 
two: A newcom.er would insist that, as he might 
play cards in his native town, he ought not to be 
expected to obey puritanical restrictions in the 
place to which he came. The result was that the 
resident Jews would clamor against foreigners 
enjoying special privileges, as in this way all at- 
tempts to control gambling might be defeated. Or 
the newcomer would claim to shave his beard in 
accordance with his homiC custom, but to the scan- 
dal of the town which he was visiting. The native 
young men would imitate the foreigner, and then 
there would be trouble. Or the settler would as- 
sert his right to wear colors and fashions and jew- 
elry forbidden to native Jews. Again, the mar- 
riage problem was complicated by the arrival of 
insinuating strangers, who turned out to be mar- 
ried men masquerading as bachelors. Then as to 
public worship — the congregation was often split 
Into fragments by the Independent services organ- 
ized by foreign groups, and it would become neces- 
sary to prohibit Its own members from attending 

142 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

the synagogues of foreign settlers. Then as to 
communal taxes : these were fixed annually on the 
basis of the population, and the arrival of new- 
comers seriously disturbed the equilibrium, led to 
fresh exactions by the Government, which it was by 
no means certain the new settlers could or would 
pay, and which, therefore, fell on the shoulders of 
the old residents. 

When we consider all these facts, we can see that 
the eagerness of the medieval Jews to control the 
Influx of foreign settlers was only in part the result 
of base motives. And, of course, the exclusion was 
not permanent or rigid. In Rome, the Sefardic 
and the Italian Jews fraternally placed their syna- 
gogues on different floors of the same building. In 
some German towns, the foreign synagogue was 
fixed in the same courtyard as the native. Every- 
where foreign Jews abounded, and everywhere a 
generous welcome awaited the genuine traveller. 

As to the travelling beggar, he was a perpetual 
nuisance. Yet he was treated with much consid- 
eration. The policy with regard to him was, 
" Send the beggar further," and this suited the 
tramp, too. He did not wish to settle, he wished 
to m.ove on. He would be lodged for two days In 
the communal Inn, or If, as usually happened, he 

143 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

arrived on Friday evening, he would be billeted on 
some hospitable member, or the Shamash would 
look after him at the public expense. It is not till 
the thirteenth century that we meet regular envoys 
sent from Palestine to collect money. 

The genuine traveller, however, was an ever- 
welcome guest. If he came at fair time, his way 
was smoothed for him. The Jew who visited the 
fair was only rarely charged local taxes by the 
Synagogue. He deserved a welcome, for he not 
only brought wares to sell, but he came laden with 
new books. The fair was the only book-market. 
At other times the Jews were dependent on the 
casual visits of travelling venders of volumes. 
Book-selling does not seem to have been a settled 
occupation in the Middle Ages. The merchant 
who came to the fair also fulfilled another function 
— that of Shadchan. The day of the fair was, in 
fact, the crisis of the year. Naturally, the letter- 
carrier w^as eagerly received. In the early part of 
the eighteenth century the function of conveying 
the post was sometim.es filled by Jewesses. 

Even the ordinary traveller, who had no busi- 
ness to transact, would often choose fair time for 
visiting new places, for he would be sure to meet 
interesting people then. He, too, would m.ostly 

144 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

arrive on a Friday evening, and would beguile the 
Sabbath with reports of the wonders he had seen. 
In the great synagogue of Sepphorls, Jochanan was 
discoursing of the great pearl, so gigantic In size 
that the Eastern gates of the Temple were to be 
built of the single gem. " Ay, ay," assented an 
auditor, who had been a notorious skeptic until he 
had become a shipwrecked sailor, " had not mine 
own eyes beheld such a pearl In the ocean-bed, I 
should not have believed it." And so the medieval 
traveller would tell his enthralling tales. He would 
speak of a mighty Jewish kingdom In the East, 
existing In Idyllic peace and prosperity; he would 
excite his auditors with news of the latest Messiah ; 
he would describe the river Sambatyon, which 
keeps the Sabbath, and, mingling truth with fiction, 
with one breath would truly relate how he crossed a 
river on an Inflated skin, and with the next breath 
romance about Hlllel's tomb, how he had been 
there, and how he had seen a large hollow stone, 
which remains empty If a bad fellow enters, but at 
the approach of a pious visitor fills up with sweet, 
pure water, with which he washes, uttering a wish 
at the same time, sure that it will come true. It 
Is Impossible even to hint at all the wonders of 
the tombs. Jews were ardent believers in the 
10 145 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

supernatural power of sepulchres; they made pil- 
grimages to them to pray and to beg favors. Jew- 
ish travellers' tales of the Middle Ages are heavily 
laden with these legends. Of course, the traveller 
would also bring genuine news about his brethren 
in distant parts, and sober information about for- 
eign countries, their v/ays, their physical conforma- 
tion, and their strange birds and beasts. These 
stories were in the main true. For instance, Pe- 
tachiah tells of a flying camel, which runs fifteen 
times as fast as the fleetest horse. He must have 
seen an ostrich, which is still called the flying camel 
by Arabs. But we cannot linger over this matter. 
Suffice it to say that, as soon as Sabbath was over, 
the traveller's narrative would be written out by 
the local scribe, and treasured as one of the com- 
munal prizes. The traveller, on his part, often 
kept a diary, and himself compiled a description 
of his adventures. In some congregations there 
was kept a Communal Note-Book, in which were 
entered decisions brought by visiting Rabbis from 
other communities. 

The most welcom.e of guests, even more wel- 
come than long-distance travellers, or globe-trot- 
ters, were the Bachurim and travelling Rabbis. 
The Talmudic Rabbis were most of them travel- 

146 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

lers. Akiba's extensive journeys were, some think, 
designed to rouse the Jews of Asia Minor gen- 
erally to participate In the Insurrection against Ha- 
drian. But my narrative must be at this point 
confined to the medieval students. For the Bachu- 
rim, or students, there was a special house In many 
communities, and they lived together with their 
teachers. In the twelfth century, the great acad- 
emy of Narbonne, under Abraham Ibn Daud, at- 
tracted crowds of foreign students. These, as 
Benjamin of Tudela tells us, were fed and clothed 
at the communal cost. At Beaucaire, the students 
were housed and supported at the teacher's ex- 
pense. In the seventeenth century, the students 
not only were paid small bursaries, but every house- 
hold entertained one or more of them at table. 
In these circumstances their life was by no means 
dull or monotonous. A Jewish student endures 
much, but he knows how to get the best out of life. 
This optimism, this quickness of humor, saved the 
Rabbi and his pupil from many a melancholy hour. 
Take Abraham ibn Ezra, for instance. If ever a 
man was marked out to be a bitter revller of fate, 
it was he. But he laughed at fate. He gaily wan- 
dered from his native Spain over many lands pen- 
niless, travelled with no baggage but his thoughts^ 

147 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

visited Italy and France, and even reached London, 
where, perhaps, he died. Fortune ill-treated him, 
but he found many joys. Wherever he went, pat- 
rons held out their hand. 

Travelling students found many such generous 
lovers of learning, who, with their wealth, encour- 
aged their guests to write original works or copy 
out older books, which the patrons then passed on 
to poor scholars In want of a library. The legend 
Is told, how the prophet Elijah visited Hebron, 
and was not '* called up " in the synagogue. Re- 
ceiving no Allyah on earth, he returned to his eleva- 
tion in Heaven. It was thus Imprudent to deny 
honor to angels unawares. Usually the scholar was 
treated as such a possible angel. When he ar- 
rived, the whole congregation would turn out to 
meet him. He would be taken In procession to the 
synagogue, where he would say the benediction 
ha-Gomel, in thanks for his safety on the road. 
Perhaps he w^ould address the congregation, 
though he would do that rather In the school than 
In the synagogue. Then a banquet would be spread 
for him. This banquet was called one of the Seu- 
doth MItzvah, i. e. *' commandment meals," to 
which It was a duty of all pious men to contribute 
their money and their own attendance. It would 

148 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

be held in the communal hall, used mostly for mar- 
riage feasts. When a wedding party came from 
afar, similar steps for general enjoyment were 
taken. Men mounted on horseback went forth to 
welcome the bride, mimic tournaments were fought 
en route, torch-light processions were made if it 
were night time, processions by boats if it were in 
Italy or by the Rhine, a band of communal musi- 
cians, retained at general cost, played merry 
marches, and everyone danced and joined in the 
choruses. These musicians often went from town 
to town, and the Jewish players were hired for 
Gentile parties, just as Jews employed Christian or 
Arab musicians to help make merry on the Jewish 
Sabbaths and festivals. 

We need not wonder, then, that a traveller like 
Ibn Ezra was no croaker, but a genial critic of life. 
He suffered, but he was light-hearted enough to 
compose witty epigrams and improvise rollicking 
wine songs. He was an accomplished chess player, 
and no doubt did something to spread the Eastern 
game in Europe. Another service rendered by 
such travellers was the spread of learning by their 
translations. Their wanderings made them great 
linguists, and they were thus able to translate medi- 
cal, astronomical, and scientific works wherever 

149 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

they went. They were ilso sent by kings on mis- 
sions to collect new nautical instruments. Thus, 
the baculus, which helped Columbus to discover 
America, was taken to Portugal by Jews, and a 
French Jew was its inventor. They were much in 
demand as travelling doctors, being summoned 
from afar to effect specific cures. But they also 
carried other delights with them. Not only were 
they among the troubadours, but they were also the 
most famous of the travelling conteurs. It was 
the Jews, like Berechiah, Charizi, Zabara, Abra- 
ham ibn Chasdai, and other incessant travellers, 
who helped to bring to Europe iEsop, Bidpai, the 
Buddhist legends, who " translated them from the 
Indian," and were partly responsible for this rich 
poetical gift to the Western world. 

Looking back on such a life, Ibn Ezra might 
well detect a Divine Providence in his own pains 
and sorrows. So, Jew-like, he retained his hope to 
the last, and after his buffetings on the troubled 
seas of life, remembering the beneficent results of 
his travels to others, if not to himself, he could 
write in this faithful strain : 

My hope God knoweth well, 

My life He made full sweet; 
Whene'er His servant fell, 

God raised him to his feet. 
150 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

Within the garment of His grace, 

My faults He did enfold, 
Hiding my sin. His kindly face 

My God did ne'er withhold. 
Requiting with fresh good. 

My black ingratitude. 

There remain the great merchant travellers to 
be told about. They sailed over all the world, and 
brought to Europe the wares, the products, the 
luxuries of the East. They had their own peculiar 
dangers. Shipwreck was the fate of others besides 
themselves, but they were peculiarly liable to cap- 
ture and sale as slaves. Foremost among their 
more normal hardships I should place the bridge 
laws of the Middle Ages. The bridges were some- 
times practically maintained by the Jewish tolls. In 
England, before 1290, a Jew paid a toll of a half- 
penny on foot and a full penny on horseback — 
large sums in those days. A " dead Jew " paid 
eightpence. Burial was for a long time lawful 
only in London, and the total toll paid for bring- 
ing a dead Jew to London over the various bridges 
must have been considerable. In the Kurpfalz, 
for instance, the Jewish traveller had to pay the 
usual " white penny " for ever^^ mile, but also a 
heavy general fee for the whole journey. If he 

151 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

was found without his ticket of leave, he was at 
once arrested. But it was when he came to a 
bridge that the exactions grew insufferable. The 
regulations were somewhat tricky, for the Jew was 
specially taxed only on Sundays and the Festivals 
of the Church. But every other day was some 
Saint's Festival, and while, in Mannheim, even on 
those days the Christian traveller paid one kreu- 
zer if he crossed the bridge on foot, and two if on 
horseback, the Jew was charged four kreuzer if 
on foot, twelve if on a horse, and for every beast 
of burden he, unlike the Christian wayfarer, paid 
a further toll of eight kreuzer. The Jewish quar- 
ter often lay near the river, and Jews had great oc- 
casion for crossing the bridges, even for local 
needs. In Venice, the Jewish quarter was natu- 
rally intersected by bridges ; in Rome there v/as the 
pons Judeorum, which, no doubt, the Jews had to 
maintain in repair. It must be remembered that 
many local Jewish communities paid a regular 
bridge tax which was not exacted from Christians, 
and when all this is considered, it will be seen tha': 
the Jewish merchant needed to work hard and go 
far afield, if he was to get any profit from his 
enterprises. 

Nevertheless, these Jews owned horses and 
152 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

caravans, and sailed their own ships long before 
the time when great merchants, like the English 
Jew Antonio Fernandes Carvajal, traded In 
their own vessels between London and the Cana- 
ries. We hear of Palestinian Jews in the third 
century and of Italian Jews in the fifth century 
with ships of their own. Jewish sailors abounded 
on the Mediterranean, which tended to become 
a Jewish lake. The trade routes of the Jews 
were chiefly two. '' By one route,'* says Beazley, 
*' they sailed from the ports of France and Italy 
to the Isthmus of Suez, and thence down the 
Red Sea to India and Farther Asia. By an- 
other course, they transported the goods of the 
West to the Syrian coast; up the Orontes to 
Antloch; down the Euphrates to Bassora; and 
so along the Persian Gulf to Oman and the 
Southern Ocean." Further, there were two chief 
overland routes. On the one side merchants left 
Spain, traversed the straits of Gibraltar, went by 
caravan from Tangier along the northern fringe 
of the desert, to Egypt, Syria, and Persia. This 
was the southern route. Then there was the north- 
ern route, through Germany, across the country of 
the Slavs to the Lower Volga; thence, descending 
the river, they sailed across the Caspian. Then the 

153 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

traveller proceeded along the Oxus valley to 
Balkh, and, turning north-east, traversed the coun- 
try of the Tagazgaz Turks, and found himself at 
last on the frontier of China. When one realizes 
the extent of such a journey, It Is not surprising to 
hear that the greatest authorities are agreed that 
in the Middle Ages, before the rise of the Italian 
trading republics, the Jews were the chief middle- 
men between Europe and Asia. Their vast com- 
mercial undertakings were productive of much 
good. Not only did the Jews bring to Europe new 
articles of food and luxury, but they served the 
various States as envoys and as intelligencers. The 
great Anglo- Jewish merchant Carvajal provided 
Cromwell with valuable information, as other Jew- 
ish merchants had done to other rulers of whom 
they were loyal servants. In the fifteenth century 
Henry of Portugal applied to Jews for intelligence 
respecting the interior of Africa, and a little later 
John, king of the same land, derived accurate in- 
formation respecting India from two Jewish trav- 
ellers that had spent many years at Ormuz and 
Calcutta. But It is unnecessary to add miore facts 
of this type. The Jewish merchant traveller was 
no mere tradesman. He observed the country, 
especially did he note the numbers and occupations 

154 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

of the Jews, their synagogues, their schools, their 
vices, and their virtues. 

In truth, the Jewish traveller, as he got farther 
from home, was more at home than many of his 
contemporaries of other faiths when they were at 
home. He kept alive that sense of the oneness of 
Judaism which could be most strongly and comi- 
pletely achieved because there w^as no political bias 
to separate it into hostile camps. 

But the interest between the traveller and his 
home was maintained by another bond. A strik- 
ing feature of Jewish v/ayfaring life was the writ- 
ing of letters home. The "Book of the Pious," com- 
posed about 1200, says: " He that departs from 
the city where his father and mother live, and 
travels to a place of danger, and his father and 
mother are anxious on account of him; it is the 
bounden duty of the son to hire a messenger as 
soon as he can and despatch a letter to his father 
and mother, telling them when he departs from 
the place of danger, that their anxiety may be al- 
layed." Twice a year all Jews wrote family let- 
ters, at the New Year and the Passover, and they 
sent special greetings on birthdays. But the trav- 
eller was the chief letter-writer. " O my father," 
wrote the f amyous Obadiah of Bertinoro, in 1488, 

155 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

" my departure from thee has caused thee sorrow 
and suffering, and I am inconsolable that I was 
forced to leave at the time when age was creeping 
on thee. When I think of thy grey hairs, which I 
no longer see, my eyes flov/ over with tears. But 
if the happiness of serving thee in person is denied 
to me, yet I can at least serve thee as thou desirest, 
by writing to thee of my journey, by pouring my 
soul out to thee, by a full narrative of what I have 
seen and of the state and manners of the Jews in 
all the places where I have dwelt." After a long 
and valuable narrative, he concludes in this loving 
strain: "I have taken me a house in Jerusalem 
near the synagogue, and my window overlooks it. 
In the court where my house is, there live five 
women, and only one other man besides myself. 
He is blind, and his wife attends to my needs. God 
be thanked, I have escaped the sickness which af- 
fects nearly all travellers here. And I entreat you, 
weep not at my absence, but rejoice in my joy, that 
I am in the Holy City. I take God to witness that 
here the thought of all my sufferings vanishes, and 
but one image is before my eyes, thy dear face, O 
my father. Let me feel that I can picture that 
face to me, not clouded with tears, but lit with joy. 
You have other children around you; make them 

156 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

your joy, and let my letters, which I will ever and 
anon renev/, bring solace to your age, as your let- 
ters bring^olace to me." 

Much more numerous than the epistles of sons 
to fathers are the letters of fathers to their fami- 
lies. When these come from Palestine, there is 
the same mingling of pious joy and human sorrow 
' — joy to be in the Holy Land, sorrow to be sep- 
arated from home. Another source of grief was 
the desolation of Palestine. 

One such letter-writer tells sadly how he walked 
through the market at Zion, thought of the past, 
and only kept back his tears lest the Arab onlook- 
ers should see and ridicule his sorrow. Yet an- 
other medieval letter-writer, Nachmanides, reaches 
the summit of sentiment in these lines, which I take 
from Dr. Schechter's translation: "I was exiled 
by force from home, I left my sons and daughters; 
and with the dear and sweet ones whom I brought 
up on my knees, I left my soul behind me. My 
heart and my eyes will dwell with them forever. 
But O ! the joy of a day In thy courts, O Jerusalem 1 
visiting the ruins of the Temple and crying over 
the desolate Sanctuary; where I am permitted to 
caress thy stones, to fondle thy dust, and to weep 
over thy ruins. I wept bitterly, but found joy In 
my tears." 

157 



MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 

And with this thought In our mind we will take 
leave of our subject. It is the traveller who can 
best discern, amid the ruins wrought by man, the 
hope of a Divine rebuilding. Over the heavy hills 
of strife, he sees the coming dawn of peace. The 
world must still pass through much tribulation be- 
fore the new Jerusalem shall arise, to enfold in its 
loving em.brace all countries and all men. But the 
traveller, more than any other, hastens the good 
time. He overbridges seas, he draws nations 
nearer; he shows men that there are many ways of 
living and of loving. He teaches them to be tol- 
erant; he humanizes them by presenting their 
brothers to them. The traveller it is who prepares 
a way in the wilderness, who m.akes straight in the 
desert a highway for the Lord. 

[Notes, pp. 305-306] 



tm 



THE FOX'S HEART 

Pliny says that by eating the palpitating heart 
of a mole one acquires the faculty of divining fu- 
ture events. In "Westward Ho!" the Spanish 
prisoners beseech their English foe, Mr. Oxenham, 
not to leave them in the hands of the Cimaroons, 
for the latter invariably ate the hearts of all that 
fell Into their hands, after roasting them alive. 
" Do you know," asks Mr. Alston in the " Witch's 
Head," " what those Basutu devils would have 
done if they had caught us? They would have 
skinned us, and made our hearts into mouti [medi- 
cine] and eaten them, to give them the courage of 
the white man." Ibn Verga, the author of a six- 
teenth century account of Jewish martyrs, records 
the following strange story: " I have heard that 
some people in Spain once brought the accusation 
that they had found. In the house of a Jew, a lad 
slain, and his breast rent near the heart. They 
asserted that the Jews had extracted his heart to 
em.ploy It at their festival. Don Solomon, the 
Levlte, who was a learned man and a Cabballst, 

159 



THE FOX'S HEART 

placed the Holy Name under the lad's tongue. 
The lad then awoke and told who had slain him, 
and who had removed his heart, with the object 
of accusing the poor Jews. I have not," adds the 
author of the Shehet Jehudah, " seen this story 
In writing, but I have heard it related." 

We have the authority of Dr. Ploss for the 
statement that among the Slavs witches produce 
considerable disquiet in families, into which, folk 
say, they penetrate in the disguise of hens or butter- 
flies. They steal the hearts of children in order to 
eat them. They strike the child on the left side 
with a little rod ; the breast opens, and the witches 
tear out the heart, and devour every atom of it. 
Thereupon the wound closes up of itself, without 
leaving a trace of what has been done. The child 
dies either immediately or soon afterwards, as the 
witch chooses. Many children's illnesses are at- 
tributed to this cause. If one of these witches is 
caught asleep, the people seize her, and move her 
so as to place her head where her feet were before. 
On awaking, she has lost all her power for evil, and 
is transformed into a medicine-woman, who is 
acquainted with the healing effects of every herb, 
and aids In curing children of their diseases. In 
Heine's poem, " The Pilgrimage to Kevlaar," the 

160 



THE FOX'S HEART 

love-lorn youth seeks the cure of his heart's 111 by 
placing a waxen heart on the shrine. This Is un- 
questionably the most exquisite use In literature of 
the heart as a charm. 

Two or three of the stories that I have noted 
down on the gruesome subject of heart-eating have 
been given above. Such ideas were abhorrent to 
the Jewish conscience, and the use of the heart torn 
from a living animal was regarded as characteris- 
tic of Idolatry (Jerusalem Talmud, Ahoda Zara, 
il, 41b) . In the Book of Tobit a fish's heart plays 
a part, but It Is detached from the dead animal, and 
Is not eaten. It forms an ingredient of the smoke 
which exorcises the demon that is troubling the 
heroine Sarah. 

I have not come across any passage In the Jew- 
ish MIdrashIm that ascribes to " heart-eating," 
even in folk-lore, the virtue of bestowing wisdom. 
Aristotle seems to lend his authority to some such 
notion as that I have quoted from Pliny, when he 
says, " Man alone presents the phenomenon of 
heart-beating, because he alone Is moved by hope 
and by expectation of what Is coming." As 
George H. Lewes remarked, It Is quite evident that 
Aristotle could never have held a bird In his hand. 
The Idea, however, that eating the heart of an 
11 161 



THE FOX'S HEART 

animal has wisdom-conferring virtue seems to 
underlie a very interesting Hebrew fable published 
by Dr. Steinschneider, in his Alphahetiim Siracidis. 
The Angel of Death had demanded of God the 
power to slay all living things. 

" The Holy One replied, * Cast a pair of each species into the 
sea, and then thou shalt have dominion over all that remain of 
the species.' The Angel did so forthwith, and he cast a pair of 
each kind into the sea. When the fox saw what he was about, 
what did he do? At once he stood and wept. Then said the 
Angel of Death unto hira, ' Why v/eepest thou ? ' * For my com- 
panions, whom thou hast cast into the sea,' answered the fox. 
'Where, then, are thy companions?' said the Angel. The fox 
ran to the sea-shore [with his wife], and the Angel of Death 
beheld the reflection of the fox in the v/ater, and he thought that 
he had already cast in a pair of foxes, so, addressing the fox 
by his side, he cried, ' Be off with you ! ' The fox at once fled 
and escaped. The weasel met him, and the fox related what had 
happened, and what he had done; and so the weasel went and 
did likewise. 

" At the end of the year, the leviathan assembled all the crea- 
tures in the sea, and lo ! the fox and the weasel were missing, 
for thej' had not come into the sea. He sent to ask, and he was 
told how the fox and the weasel had escaped through their wis- 
dom. They taunted the leviathan, saying, * The fox is exceed- 
ingly cunning.' The leviathan felt uneasy and envious, and he 
sent a deputation of great fishes, with the order that they were 
to deceive the fox, and bring him before him. They went, and 
found him by the sea-shore. When the fox saw the fishes dis- 

162 



THE FOX'S HEART 

porting themselves near the bank, he was surprised, and he went 
among them. They beheld him, and asked, * Who art thou ? ' 
* I am the fox,' said he. ' Knowest thou not,' continued the 
fishes, * that a great honor is in store for thee, and that we have 
come here on thy behalf ? ' ' What is it ? ' asked the fox. ' The 
leviathan, ' they said, * is sick, and like to die. He has appointed 
thee to reign in his stead, for he has heard that thou art wiser 
and more prudent than all other animals. Come with us, for 
we are his messengers, and are here to thy honor.' * But,' ob- 
jected the fox, ' how can I come into the sea without being 
drowned ? ' ' Nay,' said the fishes ; * ride upon one of us, and 
he will carry thee above the sea, so that not even a drop of v^ater 
shall touch so much as the soles of thy feet, until thou reachest 
the kingdom. We will take thee down without thy knowing it. 
Come with us, and reign over us, and be king, and be joyful 
all thy days. No more wilt thou need to seek for food, nor will 
wild beasts, stronger than thou, meet thee and devour thee.' 

" The fox heard and believed their words. He rode upon one 
of them, and they went with him into the sea. Soon, however, 
the waves dashed over him, and he began to perceive that he 
had been tricked. ' Woe is me ! ' wailed the fox, ' what have I 
done? I have played many a trick on others, but these fishes 
have played one on me worth all mine put together. Now I have 
fallen into their hands, how shall I free myself? Indeed,' he 
said, turning to the fishes, ' now that I am fully in your power, 
I shall speak the truth. What are you going to do with me?' 
*To tell thee the truth,' replied the fishes, 'the leviathan has 
heard thy fame, that thou art very wise, and he said, I will 
rend the fox, and will eat his heart, and thus I shall become 
wise.' ' Oh ! ' said the fox, * why did you not tell me the 

163 



THE FOX'S HEART 

truth at first? I should then have brought my heart with me, 
and I should have given it to King Leviathan, and he would 
have honored me ; but now ye are in an evil plight.' * What ! 
thou hast not thy heart with thee ? ' * Certainly not. It is our 
custom to leave our heart at home while we go about from place 
to place. When we need our heart, we take it; otherwise it 
remains at home.' * What must we do ? ' asked the bewildered 
fishes. ' My house and dwelling-place,' replied the fox^ ' are by 
the sea-shore. If you like, carry me back to the place whence 
you brought me, I will fetch my heart, and will come again with 
you. I will present my heart to Leviathan, and he will reward 
me and you with honors. But if you take me thus, without my 
heart, he will be wroth with you, and will devour you. I have 
no fear for myself, for I shall say unto him: My lord, they 
did not tell me at first, and when they did tell me, I begged 
them to return for my heart, but they refused.' The fishes at 
once declared that he was speaking well. They conveyed him 
back to the spot on the sea-shore w^hence they had taken him. 
Off jumped the fox, and he danced with joy. He threw himself 
on the sand, and laughed. * Be quick,' cried the fishes, * get 
thy heart, and come.' But the fox answered, * You fools ! Be- 
gone! How could I have come with you without my heart? 
Have you any animals that go about without their hearts?' 
* Thou hast tricked us,' they moaned. ' Fools ! I tricked the Angel 
of Death, how much more easily a parcel of silly fishes.' 

" They returned in shame, and related to their master what 
had happened. * In truth,' he said, ' he is cunning, and ye are 
simple. Concerning you was it said. The turning away of the 
simple shall slay them [Prov. i: 32]. Then the leviathan ate 
the fishes." 

164 



THE FOX'S HEART 

Metaphorically, the Bible characterizes the fool 
as a man " without a heart," and it is probably in 
the same sense that modern Arabs describe the 
brute creation as devoid of hearts. The fox in the 
narrative just given knew better. Not so, how- 
ever, the lady who brought a curious question for 
her Rabbi to solve. The case to which I refer may 
be found in the Responsa Zebi Hirsch. Hirsch's 
credulous questioner asserted that she had pur- 
chased a live cock, but on killing and drawing it, 
she had found that it possessed no heart. The 
Rabbi refused very properly to believe her. On 
investigating the matter, he found that, while she 
was dressing the cock, two cats had been standing 
near the table. The Rabbi assured his questioner 
that there was no need to inquire further into the 
whereabouts of the cock's heart. 

Out of the crowd of parallels to the story of the 
fox's heart suppHed by the labors of Benfey, I se- 
lect one given in the second volume of the learned 
investigator's Pantschatantra. A crocodile had 
formed a close friendship with a monkey, who in- 
habited a tree close to the water side. The mon- 
key gave the crocodile nuts, which the latter rel- 
ished heartily. One day the crocodile took some 
of the nuts home to his wife. She found them 

165 



THE FOX'S HEART 

excellent, and inquired who was the donor. " If," 
she said, when her husband had told her, '' he 
feeds on such ambrosial nuts, this monkey's heart 
must be ambrosia itself. Bring me his heart, 
that I may eat it, and so be free from age and 
death." Does not this version supply a more 
probable motive than that attributed in the He- 
brew story to the leviathan? I strongly suspect 
that the Hebrew fable has been pieced together 
from various sources, and that the account given 
by the fishes, viz. that the leviathan was ill, was 
actually the truth in the original story. The levi- 
athan would need the fox's heart, not to become 
wise, but in order to save his life. 

To return to the crocodile. He refuses to be- 
tray his friend, and his vv^ife accuses him of infidel- 
ity. His friend, she maintains, is not a monkey at 
all, but a lady-love of her husband's. Else why 
should he hesitate to obey her wishes? " If he is 
not your beloved, why will you not kill him ? Un- 
less you bring me his heart, I will not taste food, 
but will die." Then the crocodile gives in, and in 
the most friendly manner invites the monkey to pay 
him and his wife a visit. The monkey consents 
unsuspectingly, but discovers the truth, and escapes 
by adopting the same ruse as that employed by the 

166 



THE FOX'S HEART 

fox. He asserts that he has left his heart behind 
on his tree. 

That eating the heart of animals was not 
thought a means of obtaining wisdom among the 
Jews, may be directly inferred from a passage in 
the Talmud (Horayoth, 13b). Among five 
things there enumerated as " causing a man to for- 
get what he has learned," the Talmud includes 
'' eating the hearts of animals." Besides, in cer- 
tain well-known stories in the Midrash, where a 
fox eats some other animal's heart, his object is 
merely to enjoy a titbit. 

One such story in particular deserves attention. 
There are at least three versions of it. The one is 
contained in the Mishle Shualim, or " Fox-Sto- 
ries," by Berechiah ha-Nakdan (no. 106), the sec- 
ond in the Hadar Zekentm (fol. 27b), and the 
third in the Midrash Yalkut, on Exodus (ed. 
Venice, 56a) . Let us take the three versions in the 
order named. 

A wild boar roams in a lion's garden. The lion 
orders him to quit the place and not defile his resi- 
dence. The boar promises to obey, but next morn- 
ing he Is found near the forbidden precincts. The 
Hon orders one of his ears to be cut off. He then 
summons the fox, and directs that if the boar still 

167 



THE FOX'S HEART 

persists in his obnoxious visits, no mercy shall be 
shown to him. The boar remains obstinate, and 
loses his ears (one had already gone!) and eyes, 
and finally he Is killed. The lion bids the fox pre- 
pare the carcass for His Majesty's repast, but the 
fox himself devours the boar's heart. When the 
lion discovers the loss, the fox quiets his master by 
asking, " If the boar had possessed a heart, would 
he have been so foolish as to disobey you so per- 
sistently? " 

The king of the beasts, runs the story in the sec- 
ond of the three versions, appointed the ass as 
keeper of the tolls. One day King Lion, together 
with the wolf and the fox, approached the city. 
The ass came and demanded the toll of them. Said 
the fox, " You are the most audacious of animals. 
Don't you see that the king is with us? " But the 
ass answered, " The king himself shall pay," and 
he went and demanded the toll of the king. The 
lion rent him to pieces, and the fox ate the heart, 
and excused himself as in the former version. 

The Yalkut, or third version, Is clearly Identical 
with the preceding, for, like It, the story Is quoted 
to illustrate the Scriptural text referring to Pha- 
raoh's heart becoming hard. In this version, how- 
ever, other animals accompany the lion and the 

168 



THE FOX'S HEART 

fox, and the scene of the story is on board ship. 
The ass demands the fare, with the same denoue- 
ment as before. 

What induced the fox to eat the victim's heart? 
The ass is not remarkable for wisdom, nor is the 
boar. Hence the wily Reynard can scarcely have 
thought to add to his store of cunning by his sur- 
reptitious meal. 

Hearts, in folk-lore, have been eaten for re- 
venge, as in the grim story of the lover's heart told 
by Boccaccio. The jealous husband forces his wife, 
whose fidelity he doubts, to make a meal of her 
supposed lover's heart. In the story of the great 
bird's egg, again, the brother who eats the heart 
becomes rich, but not wise. Various motives, no 
doubt, are assigned in other Mdrchen for choosing 
the heart; but in these particular Hebrew fables, it 
is merely regarded as a bonne houche. Possibly 
the Talmudic caution, that eating the heart of a 
beast brings forgetfulness, may have a moral sig- 
nificance ; it may mean that one who admits bestial 
passions into his soul will be destitute of a mind 
for nobler thoughts. This suggestion I have 
heard, and I give it for what it may be worth. As 
a rule, there is no morality in folk-lore; stories 
with morals belong to the later and more artificial 

169 



THE FOX'S HEART 

Stage of poet-lore. Homiletlcal folk-lore, of 
course, stands on a different basis. 

Now, in the Yalkiit version of the fox and the 
lion fable, all that we are told is, " The fox saw the 
ass's heart; he took it, and ate it." But Berechiah 
leaves us in no doubt as to the fox's motive. " The 
fox saw that his heart was fat, and so he took it." 
In the remaining version, '' The fox saw that the 
heart was good, so he ate it." This needs no fur- 
ther comment. 

Of course, it has been far from my intention to 
dispute that the heart was regarded by Jews as the 
seat both of the intellect and the feelings, of all 
mental and spiritual functions, indeed. The heart 
was the best part of man, the fount of life; hence 
Jehudah Halevi's well-known saying, " Israel is to 
the world as the heart to the body." An intimate 
connection was also established, by Jews and 
Greeks alike, between the physical condition of the 
heart and man's moral character. It was a not 
unnatural thought that former ages were more 
pious than later times. " The heart of Rabbi 
Akiba was like the door of the porch [which was 
twenty cubits high], the heart of Rabbi Eleazar 
ben Shammua was like the door of the Temple 
[this was only ten cubits high], while our hearts 

170 



THE FOX'S HEART 

are only as large as the eye of a needle." But I am 
going beyond my subject. To collect all the things, 
pretty and the reverse, that have been said in Jew- 
ish literature about the heart, would need more lei- 
sure, and a great deal more learning, than I pos- 
sess. So I will conclude with a story, pathetic as 
well as poetical, from a Jewish medieval chronicle. 
A Mohammedan king once asked a learned 
Rabbi why the Jews, who had in times long past 
been so renowned for their bravery, had in later 
generations become subdued, and even timorous. 
The Rabbi, to prove that captivity and persecu- 
tion were the cause of the change, proposed an ex- 
periment. He bade the king take two lion's 
whelps, equally strong and big. One was tied up, 
the other was allowed to roam free in the palace 
grounds. They were fed alike, and after an in- 
terval both were killed. The king's officers found 
that the heart of the captive lion was but one-tenth 
as large as that of his free companion, thus evi- 
dencing the degenerating influence of slavery. 
This Is meant, no doubt, as a fable, but, at least, it 
Is not without a moral. The days of captivity are 
gone, and it may be hoped that Jewish large-heart- 
edness has come back with the breath of freedom. 

[Notes, pp. 306-307] 
171 



'' MARRIAGES ARE MADE IN HEAVEN '' 

" The Omnipresent," said a Rabbi, " is occupied in making 
marriages." The levity of the saying lies in the ear of him 
who hears it; for by marriages the speaker meant all the won- 
drous combinations of the universe, whose issue makes our good 
and evil. George Eliot 

The proverb that I have set at the head of these 
lines is popular in every language of Europe. 
Need I add that a variant may be found in Chi- 
nese? The Old Man of the Moon unites male and 
female with a silken, invisible thread, and they 
cannot afterwards be separated, but are destined 
to become man and wife. The remark of the 
Rabbi quoted in " Daniel Deronda " carries the 
proverb back apparently to a Jewish origin; and 
it is, indeed, more than probable that the Rabbin- 
ical literature Is the earliest source to which this 
piece of folk-philosophy can be traced. 

George Eliot's Rabbi was Jose bar Chalafta, 
and his remark was made to a lady, possibly a 
Roman matron of high quality, in Sepphorls. 
Rabbi Jose was evidently an adept in meeting the 
puzzling questions of women, for as many as six- 

172 



" MARRIAGES ARE MADE IN HEAVEN " 

teen Interviews between him and " matrons " are 
recorded In Agadic literature. Whether because 
prophetic of Its subsequent popularity, or for some 
other reason, this particular dialogue in which 
Rabbi Jose bore so conspicuous a part is repeated 
In the Midrash Rabha alone not less than four 
times, besides appearing in other Midrashlm. It 
will be as well, then, to reproduce the passage In a 
summarized form, for it may be fairly described 
as the locus classiciis on the subject. 

" How long," she asked, " did it take God to create the world ? " 
and Rabbi Jose informed her that the time occupied was six 
days. " What has God been doing since that time ? " continued 
the matron. " The Holy One," answered the Rabbi, " has been 
sitting in Heaven arranging marriages." — " Indeed ! " she replied, 
" I could do as much myself. I have thousands of slaves, and 
could marry them off in couples in a single hour. It is easy 
enough." — " I hope that you will find it so," said Rabbi Jose. 
" In Heaven it is thought as difficult as the dividing of the Red 
Sea." He then took his departure, while she assembled one 
thousand men-servants and as many maid-servants, and, marking 
them off in pairs, ordered them all to marry. On the day follov/- 
ing this wholesale wedding, the poor victims came to their mis- 
tress In a woeful plight. One had a broken leg, another a black 
eye, a third a swollen nose ; all were suffering from some ailment, 
but with one voice they joined In the cry, " Lady, unmarry us 
again ! " Then the matron sent for Rabbi Jose, admitted that 
she had underrated the delicacy and difficulty of match-making, 

175 



" MARRIAGES ARE MADE IN HEAVEN " 

and wisely resolved to leave Heaven for the future to do its 
work in its own way. 

The moral conveyed by this story may seem, 
however, to have been idealized by George Eliot 
almost out of recognition. This is hardly the case. 
Genius penetrates into the heart, even from a cas- 
ual glance at the face of things. Though it is un- 
likely that she had ever seen the full passages in 
the Midrash to which she was alluding, yet her 
insight was not at fault. For the saying that God 
is occupied in making marriages is, in fact, asso- 
ciated in some passages of the Midrash with the 
far wider problems of man's destiny, with the uni- 
versal effort to explain the inequalities of fortune, 
and the changes with which the future is heavy. 

Rabbi Jose's proverbial explanation of connu- 
bial happiness was not merely a hon mot invented 
on the spur of the moment, to silence an awkward 
questioner. It was a firm conviction, which finds 
expression in more than one quaint utterance, but 
also in more than one matter-of-fact assertion. To 
take the latter first : 

"Rabbi Phineas in the name of Rabbi Abbahu said, We find 
in the Torah, in the Prophets, and in the Holy V^rltings, evidence 
that a man's wife is chosen for him by the Holy One, blessed be 
He. Whence do we deduce it in the Torah? From Genesis 

174 



"MARRIAGES ARE MADE IN HEAVEN" 

xxiv. 50: Then Laban and Bethuel ans'wered and said [in 
reference to Rebekah's betrothal to Isaac], The thing proceedeth 
from the Lord. In the Prophets it is found in Judges xiv. 4 
[where it is related how Samson wished to mate himself with 
a woman in Timnath, of the daughters of the Philistines], But 
his father and mother knew not that it ivas of the Lord. In the 
Holy Writings the same may be seen, for it is written (Proverbs 
xix. 14), House and riches are the inheritance of fathers, but 
a prudent ivife is from the Lord." 

Many years ago, a discussion was carried on In 
the columns of Notes and Queries concerning the 
origin of the saying round which my present desul- 
tory jottings are centred. One correspondent, 
with unconscious plagiarism, suggested that the 
maxim was derived from Proverbs xlx. 14. 

Another text that might be appealed to is Tobit 
vl. 18. The Angel encourages Tobit to marry 
Sarah, though her seven husbands, one after the 
other, had died on their wedding eves. " Fear 
not," said Raphael, " for she is appointed unto 
thee from the heginningf' 

Here we may, for a moment, pause to consider 
whether any parallels to the belief In Heaven-made 
marriages exist In other ancient literatures. If 
appears In English as early as Shakespeare : 

God, the best maker of all marriages, 
Combine your hearts in one. 

Henry V., 'u. 2. 
175 



" MARRIAGES ARE MADE IN HEAVEN " 

This, however, is too late to throw any light on 
its origin. With a little ingenuity, one might, per- 
haps, torture some such notion out of certain fan- 
tastic sentences of Plato. In the Symposium (par. 
192), however, God is represented as putting ob- 
stacles in the way of the union of fitting lovers, in 
consequence of the wickedness of mankind. When 
men become, by their conduct, reconciled with God, 
they may find their true loves. Astrological divi- 
nations on the subject are certainly common enough 
in Eastern stories; a remarkable instance will be 
given later on. At the present day, Lane tells us, 
the numerical value of the letters in the names of 
the two parties to the contract are added for each 
name separately, and one of the totals is sub- 
tracted from the other. If the remainder is un- 
even, the inference drawn is favorable ; but if even, 
the reverse. The pursuit of Gematria is apparently 
not limited to Jews. Such methods, however, 
hardly illustrate my present point, for the identity 
of the couple is not discovered by the process. 
Whether the diviner's object is to make this dis- 
covery, or the future lot of the married pair is all 
that he seeks to reveal, in both cases, though he 
charm never so wisely, it does not fall within the 
scope of this Inquiry. Without stretching one's 

176 



"MARRIAGES ARE MADE IN HEAVEN" 

Imagination too much, some passages In the Pant- 
schatantra seem to Imply a belief that marriage- 
making is under the direct control of Providence. 
Take, for instance, the story of the beautiful prin- 
cess who was betrothed to a serpent, Deva Serma's 
son. Despite the various attempts made to induce 
her to break off so hideous a match, she declines 
steadfastly to go back from her word, and bases 
her refusal on the ground that the marriage was 
Inevitable and destined by the gods. 

As quaint Illustrations may be Instanced the fol- 
lowing: " Raba heard a certain man praying that 
he might marry a certain damsel; Raba rebuked 
him with the words: ' If she be destined for thee, 
nothing will part thee from her; if thou art not 
destined for her, thou art denying Providence In 
praying for her.' Afterwards Raba heard him 
say, ' If I am not destined to marry her, I hope 
that either I or she may die,' " meaning that he 
could not bear to witness her union with another. 
Despite Raba's protest, other Instances are on rec- 
ord of prayers sim.Ilar to the one of which he dis- 
approved. Or, again, the MIdrash offers a curious 
Illustration of Psalm Ixil. lo, " Surely men of low 
degree are a breath, and men of high degree a lie." 
The first clause of the verse alludes to those who 
12 177 



" MARRIAGES ARE MADE IN HEAVEN " 

say in the usual way of the world, that a certain 
man is about to wed a certain maiden, and the 
second clause to those who say that a certain 
maiden Is about to wed a certain man. In both 
cases people are in error in thinking that the vari- 
ous parties are acting entirely of their own free 
will; as a matter of fact, the whole affair Is predes- 
tined. I am not quite certain whether the same 
Idea Is Intended by the Yalkut Reubeni, In which 
the following occurs: ''Know that all rehgious 
and pious men In this our generation are hen- 
pecked by their wives, the reason being connected 
with the mystery of the Golden Calf. The men 
on that occasion did not protest against the action 
of the mixed multitude [at whose door the charge 
of making the calf is laid] , while the women were 
unwilling to surrender their golden ornaments for 
Idolatrous purposes. Therefore they rule over 
their husbands." One might also quote the bear- 
ing of the mystical theory of transmigration on the 
predestination of bridal pairs. In the Talmud, on 
the other hand, the virtues of a man's wife are 
sometimes said to be In proportion to the husband's 
own; or In other words, his own righteousness Is 
the cause of his acquiring a good wife. The obvi- 
ous objection, raised by the Talmud Itself, Is that 

178 



" MARRIAGES ARE MADE IN HEAVEN " 

a man's merits can hardly be displayed before his 
birth — and yet his bride is destined for him at that 
early period. 

Yet more quaint (I should perhaps rather term 
It consistent, were not consistency rare enough to 
be indistinguishable from quaintness) was the con- 
fident belief of a maiden of whom mention is made 
In the Sefer ha-Chasidim (par. 384) . She refused 
persistently to deck her person with ornaments. 
People said to her, ''If you go about thus un- 
adorned, no one will notice you nor court you.'* 
She replied with firm simplicity, " It is the Holy 
One, blessed be He, that settles marriages ; I need 
have no concern on the point myself." Virtue was 
duly rewarded, for she married a learned and pious 
husband. This passage In the " Book of the Pious " 
reminds me of the circumstance under which the 
originator of the latter-day Chasidism, Israel 
Baalshem, Is said to have married. When he was 
offered the daughter of a rich and learned man of 
Brody, named Abraham, he readily accepted the 
alliance, because he knew that Abraham's daughter 
was his bride destined by heaven. For, like Moses 
Mendelssohn, In some other respects the antagonist 
of the Chasldim, Baalshem accepted the declara- 
tion of Rabbi Judah in the name of Rab : " Forty 

179 



"MARRIAGES ARE MADE IN HEAVEN" 

days before the creation of a girl, a proclamation 
[Bath-Kol] Is made in Heaven, saying, " The 
daughter of such a one shall marry such and such a 
one." 

The belief in the Divine ordaining of marriages 
affected the medieval Synagogue liturgy. To re- 
peat what I have written elsewhere: When the 
bridegroom, with a joyous retinue, visited the syna- 
gogue on the Sabbath following his marriage, the 
congregation chanted the chapter of Genesis 
(xxiv) that narrates the story of Isaac's marriage, 
which, as Abraham's servant claimed, was provi- 
dentially arranged. This chapter was sung, not 
only In Hebrew, but in Arabic, in countries where 
the latter language was the vernacular. These 
special readings, which were additional to the regu- 
lar Scripture lesson, seem to have fallen out of use 
In Europe in the seventeenth century, but they are 
still retained in the East. But all over Jewry the 
beautiful old belief is contained in the wording of 
the fourth of the ^' seven benedictions " sung at the 
celebration of a wedding, " Blessed art thou, O 
Lord our God, King of the Universe, who hast 
made man in thine image, after thy likeness, and 
hast prepared unto him out of his very self a per- 
petual fabric." Here is recalled the creation of 

180 



" MARRIAGES ARE MADE IN HEAVEN " 

Eve, of whom God Himself said, " I will make 
for man a help meet unto him." Not only the 
marriage, but also the bride was Heaven-m.ade, 
and the wonderful wedding benediction enshrines 
this Idea. 

In an Agadic story, the force of this predestina- 
tion Is shown to be too strong even for royal op- 
position. It does not follow that the pre-arrange- 
ment of marriages Implies that the pair cannot fall 
In love of their ow^n accord. On the contrary, just 
the right two eventually come together; for once 
freewill and destiny need present no Incompati- 
bility. The combination, here shadowed, of a pre- 
destined and yet true-love marriage. Is effectively 
Illustrated In what follows : 

" Solomon the king was blessed with a very beautiful daughter ; 
she was the fairest maiden in the whole land of Israel. Her 
father observed the stars, to discover by astrology who was des- 
tined to be her mate in life and wed her, when lo ! he saw that 
his future son-in-law would be the poorest man in the nation. 
Now, what did Solomon do? He built a high tower by the sea, 
and surrounded it on all sides with inaccessible walls; he then 
took his daughter and placed her in the tower under the charge 
of seventy aged guardians. He supplied the castle with pro- 
visions, but he had no door made in it, so that none could enter 
the fortress without the knowledge of the guard. Then the king 
said, * I will watch in what way God will work the matter.' 

181 



" MARRIAGES ARE MADE IN HEAVEN " 

" In course of time, a poor and weary traveller was walking 
on his way by night, his garments were ragged and torn, he was 
barefooted and ready to faint with hunger, cold, and fatigue. 
He knew not where to sleep, but, casting his eyes around him, 
he beheld the skeleton of an ox lying on a field hard by. The 
youth crept inside the skeleton to shelter himself from the wind, 
and, while he slept there, down swooped a great bird, which 
lifted up the carcass and the unconscious youth in it. The bird 
flew with its burden to the top of Solomon's tower, and set it 
down on the roof before the very door of the imprisoned princess. 
She went forth on the morrow to walk on the roof according to 
her daily wont, and she descried the youth. She said to him, 
* Who art thou ? and who brought thee hither ? ' He answered, 
' I am a Jew of Acco, and a bird bore me to thee.' The kind- 
hearted maiden clothed him in new garments; they bathed and 
anointed him, and she saw that he was the handsomest youth in 
Israel. They loved one another, and his soul was bound up in 
hers. One day she said, 'Wilt thou marry me?' He replied, 
'Would it might be so!' They resolved to marry. But there 
was no ink with which to write the Kethubah, or marriage cer- 
tificate. Love laughs at obstacles. So, using some drops of his 
own blood as ink, the marriage was secretly solemnized, and he 
said, * God is my witness to-day, and Michael and Gabriel like- 
wise.' When the matter leaked out, the dismayed custodians of 
the princess hastily summoned Solomon. The king at once 
obeyed their call, and asked for the presumptuous youth. He 
looked at his son-in-law, inquired of him as to his father and 
mother, family and dwelling-place, and from his replies the king 
recognized him for the selfsame man whom he had seen in the 
stars as the destined husband of his daughter. Then Solomon 

182 



" MARRIAGES ARE MADE IN HEAVEN " 

rejoiced with exceeding joy and exclaimed, Blessed is the Omni- 
present who giveth a wife to man and establisheth hira in his 
house." 

The moral of which seems to be that, though 
marriages are made in Heaven, love must be made 
on earth. 

[Notes, p. 307] 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

Palestine is still the land of song. There the 
peasant sings Arabic ditties in the field when he 
sows and reaps, in the desert when he tends his 
flock, at the oasis when the caravan rests for the 
night, and when camels are remounted next morn- 
ing. The maiden's fresh voice keeps droning 
rhythm with her hands and feet as she carries 
water from the well or wood from the scanty for- 
est, when she milks the goats, and when she bakes 
the bread. 

The burden of a large portion of these songs is 
love. The love motive is most prominent musi- 
cally during the long week of v>^edding festivities, 
but it is by no means limited to these occasions. 
The songs often contain an element of quaint, even 
arch, repartee, in which the girl usually has the 
better of the argument. Certainly the songs are 
sometimes gross, but only in the sense that they 
are vividly natural. With no delicacy of expres- 
sion, they are seldom intrinsically coarse. The 
troubadours of Europe trilled more daintily of 

184 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

love, but there was at times an Illicit note In their 
lays. Eastern love songs never attain the Ideal 
purity of Dante, but they hardly ever sink to the 
level of Ovid. 

But why begin an account of Hebrew love 
songs by citing extant Palestinian examples In 
Arabic? Because there Is an undeniable, If remote, 
relationship between some of the latter and the 
Biblical Song of Songs. In that marvellous poem, 
outspoken praise of earthly beauty, frank enumer- 
ation of the physical charms of the lovers, thor- 
ough unreserve of Imagery, are conspicuous 
enough. Just these features, as Wetzstein showed, 
are reproduced, In a debased, yet recognizable, 
likeness, by the modern Syrian wasf — a lyric de- 
scription of the bodily perfections and adornments 
of a newly-wed pair. The Song of Songs, or Can- 
ticles, It Is true. Is hardly a marriage ode or drama; 
Its theme Is betrothed faith rather than marital 
affection. Still, if we choose to regard the Song 
of Songs as poetry merely of the wasf type, the 
Hebrew Is not only far older than any extant Ara- 
bic Instance, but It transcends the wasf type as a 
work of Inspired genius transcends conventional 
exercises In verse-making. There are superficial 
similarities between the wasf and Canticles, but 

185 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

there is no spiritual kinship. The wasf is to the 
Song as Lovelace is to Shakespeare, nay, the dis- 
tance is even greater. The difference is not only of 
degree, it is essential. The one touches the surface 
of love, the other sounds its depths. The Song of 
Songs immeasurably surpasses the wasf even as 
poetry. It has been well said by Dr. Harper 
(author of the best English edition of Canticles), 
that, viewed simply as poetry, the Song of Songs 
belongs to the loveliest masterpieces of art. " If, 
as Milton said, ' poetry should be simple, sensuous, 
passionate,' then here we have poetry of singular 
beauty and power. Such unaffected delight in all 
things fair as we find here is rare in any literature, 
and is especially remxarkable in ancient Hebrew 
literature. The beauty of the world and of the 
creatures in it has been so deeply and warmly felt, 
that even to-day the ancient poet's emotion of joy 
in them thrills through the reader." 

It is superfluous to justify this eulogy by quota- 
tion. It is impossible also, unless the quotation 
extend to the whole book. Yet one scene shall be 
cited, the exquisite, lyrical dialogue of spring, be- 
ginning with the tenth verse of the second chapter. 
It is a dialogue, though the whole is reported by 
one speaker, the Shulammite maid. Her shepherd 

186 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

lover calls to her as she stands hidden behind a lat- 
tice, In the palace In Lebanon, whither she has been 
decoyed, or persuaded to go, by the " ladles of 
Jerusalem.'* 

The shepherd lover calls 
Rise up, my love, 

My fair one, come away! 
For, lo, the winter is past, 
The rain is over and gone, 
The flowers appear on the earth: 
The birds' singing time is here, 
And the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land. 
The fig-tree ripens red her winter fruit. 
And blossoming vines give forth fragrance. 
Rise up, my love. 

My fair one, come away! 

Shulammlth makes no answer, though she feels 
that the shepherd Is conscious of her presence. She 
is, as It were. In an unapproachable steep, such as 
the wild dove selects for her shy nest. So he goes 
on: 

O my dove, that art In the clefts of the rock. 

In the covert of the steep! 

Let me see thy face. 

Let me hear thy voice, 

For sweet is thy voice, and thy face comely! 

She remains tantallzlngly Invisible, but becomes 
audible. She sings a snatch from a vineyard- 

187 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

watcher's song, hinting, perhaps, at the need in 
which her person (her " vineyard " as she else- 
where calls it) stands of protection against royal 
foxes, small and large. 

Shulammlth sings 

Take us the foxes, 
The little foxes, 

That spoil the vineyards: 
For our vines are in blossom! 

Then, in loving rapture, 

Shulammith speaks in an aside 

My beloved is mine, and I am his: 
He feedeth his flock among the lilies! 

But she cannot refuse her lover one glance at 
herself, even though she appear only to warn him 
of his danger, to urge him to leave her and return 
when the day is over. 

Shulammith entreatingly to her lover 
Until the evening breeze blows, 
And the shadows disappear (at sunset), 
Turn, my beloved ! 
Be thou as a young hart 
Upon the cleft-riven hills ! 

This is but one of the many dainty love idylls of 
this divine poem. Or, again, '' could the curious 
helplessness of the dreamer in a dream and the 

188 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

yearning of a maiden's affection be more exquisitely 
expressed than In the lines beginning, I was asleep, 
but my heart waked " ? But, Indeed, as the critic 
I am quoting continues, " the felicities of expression 
and the happy Imaginings of the poem are endless. 
The spring of nature and of love has been caught 
and fixed In Its many exquisite lines, as only Shakes- 
peare elsewhere has done It; and, understood as 
we think it must be understood. It has that ethical 
background of sacrifice and self-forgetting which 
all love must have to be thoroughly worthy." 

It is this ethical, or, as I prefer to term It, spiri- 
tual, background that discriminates the Song of 
Songs on the one hand from the Idylls of Theocri- 
tus, and, on the other, from the Syrian popular 
ditties. Some moderns, notably Budde, hold that 
the Book of Canticles is merely a collection of pop- 
ular songs used at Syrian weddings, In which the 
bride figures as queen and her mate as king, just as 
Budde (wrongly) conceives them to figure in the 
Biblical Song. Budde suggests that there were 
" guilds of professional singers at weddings, and 
that we have in the Song of Songs simply the reper- 
toire of some ancient guild-brother, who, in order 
to assist his memory, wrote down at random all 
the songs he could remember, or those he thought 
the best." 

189 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

But this theory has been generally rejected as 
unsatisfying. The book, despite its obscurities, is 
clearly a unity. It is no haphazard collection of 
love songs. There is a sustained dramatic action 
leading up to a noble climax. Some passages al- 
most defy the attempt to fit them into a coherent 
plot, but most moderns detect the following story 
in Canticles: A beautiful maid of Shulem (per- 
haps another form of Shunem), beloved by a 
shepherd swain, is the only daughter of well-off 
but rustic parents. She is treated harshly by her 
brothers, who set her to watch the vineyards, and 
this exposure to the sun somewhat mars her beauty. 
Straying in the gardens, she is on a day in spring 
surprised by Solomon and his train, who are on a 
royal progress to the north. She is taken to the 
palace in the capital, and later to a royal abode In 
Lebanon. There the " ladies of Jerusalem " seek 
to win her affections for the king, who himself pays 
her his court. But she resists all blandishments, 
and rem.ains faithful to her country lover. Sur- 
rendering graciously to her strenuous resistance, 
Solomon permits her to return unharmed to her 
mountain home. Her lover meets her, and as she 
draws near her native village, the m^aid, leaning on 
the shepherd's arm, breaks forth into the glorious 

190 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

panegyric of love, which, even if it stood alone, 
would make the poem deathless. But it does not 
stand alone. It is in every sense a climax to what 
has gone before. And what a climax ! It is a vin- 
dication of true love, which weighs no allurements 
of wealth and position against itself; a love of free 
inclination, yet altogether removed from license. 
Nor is it an expression of that lower love which 
may prevail In a polygamous state of society, when 
love is dissipated among many. We have here the 
love of one for one, an exclusive and absorbing de- 
votion. For though the Bible never prohibited 
polygamy, the Jews had become monogamous 
from the Babylonian Exile at latest. The splendid 
praise of the virtuous woman at the end of the 
Book of Proverbs gives a picture, not only of mo- 
nogamous home-life, but of woman's influence at 
its highest. The virtuous woman of Proverbs is 
wife and mother, deft guide of the home, open- 
handed dispenser of charity, with the law of kind- 
ness on her tongue ; but her activity also extends to 
the world outside the home, to the mart, to the 
business of life. Where, in olden literature, are 
woman's activities wider or more manifold, her 
powers more fully developed? Now, the Song 
of Songs Is the lyric companion to this prose plc- 

191 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

ture. The whole Song works up towards the de- 
scription of love in the last chapter — towards the 
culmination of the thought and feehng of the 
whole series of episodes. The Shulammite speaks : 

Set me as a seal upon thy heart, 

As a seal upon thine arm: 

For love Is strong as death, 

Jealousy is cruel as the grave: 

The flashes thereof are flashes of fire, 

A very flame of God ! 

Many waters cannot quench love, 

Neither can the floods drown it: 

If a man would give the substance of his house for love, 

He would be utterly contemned. 

The vindication of the Hebrew song from de- 
gradation to the level of the Syrian wasf is easy 
enough. But some may feel that there is more 
plausibility in the case that has been set up for the 
connection between Canticles and another type of 
love song, the Idylls of Theocritus, the Sicilian poet 
whose Greek compositions gave lyric distinction 
to the Ptolemaic court at Alexandria, about the 
middle of the third century B. c. E. It is re- 
m.arkable how reluctant some writers are to 
admit originality in ideas. Such writers seem, to 
recognize no possibility other than supposing The- 
ocritus to have copied Canticles, or Canticles The- 

192 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

ocrltus. It does not occur to them that both may 
be* original, independent expressions of similar 
emotions. Least original among ideas is this de- 
nial of originality in ideas. Criticism has often 
stultified itself under the obsession that everything 
Is borrowed. On this theory there can never have 
been an original note. The poet, we are told. Is 
born, not made; but poetry, apparently. Is always 
made, never born. 

The truth rather is that as human nature Is 
everywhere similar, there must necessarily be some 
similarity In its literary expression. This Is em- 
phatically the case with the expression given to the 
emotional side of human nature. The love of man 
for maid, rising everywhere from the same spring, 
must find lyric outlets that look a good deal alike. 
The family resemblance between the love poems of 
various peoples Is due to the elemental kinship of 
the love. Every true lover Is original, yet most 
true lovers, including those who have no familiar- 
ity with poetical literature, fall instinctively on the 
same terms of endearment. Differences only make 
themselves felt In the spiritual attitudes of various 
ages and races towards love. Theocritus has been 
compared to Canticles, by some on the ground of 
certain OrientalismxS of his thought and phrases, as 
13 193 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

in his Praise of Ptolemy. But his love poems bear 
no trace of Orientalism in feeling, as Canticles 
shows no trace of Hellenism in its conception of 
love. The similarities are human, the differences 
racial. 

Direct literary imitation of love lyrics certainly 
does occur. Virgil imitated Theocritus, and the 
freshness of the Greek Idyll became the convention 
of the Roman Eclogue. When such conscious imi- 
tation takes place, it is perfectly obvious. There 
Is no mistaking the affectation of an urban lyrist, 
whose lovers masquerade as shepherds in the court 
of Louis XIV. 

Theocritus seems to have had earlier Greek 
models, but few readers of his Idylls can question 
his originality, and fewer still will agree with Ma- 
haffy in denying the naturalness of his goatherds 
and fishermen, in a word, his genuineness. Ma- 
haffy wavers between two statements, that the 
Idylls are an affectation for Alexandria, and sin- 
cere for Sicily. The two statements are by no 
means contradictory. Much the same thing is true 
of Canticles, the Biblical Song of Songs. It is un- 
reasonable for anyone who has seen or read about 
a Palestinian spring, with its unique beauty of 
flower and bird and blossom, to imagine that the 

194 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

author of Canticles needed or used second-hand 
sources of Inspiration, however little his drama 
may have accorded with the life of Jerusalem in 
the Hellenistic period. And as the natural scenic 
background In each case Is native, so Is the treat- 
ment of the love theme; In both It Is passionate, 
but in the one It is nothing else, In the other It Is 
also spiritual. In both, the whole Is artistic, but 
not artificial. As regards the originality of the 
love-Interest In Canticles, It must suffice to say that 
there was always a strong romantic strain In the 
Jewish character. 

Canticles is perhaps (by no means certainly) 
post-Exilic and not far removed in date from the 
age of Theocritus. Still, a post-Exilic Hebrew 
poet had no more reason to go abroad for a roman- 
tic plot than Hosea, or the author of Ruth, or the 
writer of the royal Epithalamlum (Psalm xlv), 
an almost certainly pre-Exilic composition. This 
Psalm has been well termed a " prelude to the 
Song of Songs," for In a real sense Canticles Is an- 
ticipated and even necessitated by It. In Ruth we 
have a romance of the golden corn-field, and the 
author chooses the unsophisticated days of the 
Judges as the setting of his tale. In Canticles we 
have a contrasted picture between the simplicity of 

195 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

shepherd-life and the urban voluptuousness which 
was soon to attain its climax in the court of the 
Ptolemies. So the poet chose the luxurious reign 
of Solomon as the background for his exquisite 
" melodrama." Both Ruth and Canticles are 
home-products, and ancient Greek literature has no 
real parallel to either. 

Yet, despite the fact that the Hebrew Bible is 
permeated through and through, in its history, its 
psalmody, and its prophetic oratory, with images 
drawn from love, especially in rustic guise, so com- 
petent a critic as Graetz conceived that the pastoral 
background of the love-story of Canticles must 
have been artificial. While most of those who 
have accepted the theory of imitation — they can- 
not have reread the Idylls and the Song as wholes 
to persist in such a theory — have contended that 
Theocritus borrowed from Canticles, Graetz is 
convinced that the Hebrew poet must have known 
and imitated the Greek idyllist. The hero and 
heroine of the Song, he thinks, are not real shep- 
herds; they are bucolic dilettanti, their shepherd- 
role is not serious. Whence, then, this superficial 
pastoral mise-en-scenef This critic, be it observed, 
places Canticles in the Ptolemaic age. 

"In the then Judean world," writes Graetz, "in the post- 
196 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

Exilic period, pastoral life was in no way so distinguished as to 
serve as a poetic foil. On the contrary, the shepherd was held 
in contempt. Agriculture was so predominant that large herds 
were considered a detriment; they spoiled the grain. Shepherds, 
too, were esteemed robbers, in that they allowed their cattle to 
graze on the lands of others. In Judea itself, in the post-Exilic 
period, there were few pasture-grounds for such nomads. 
Hence the song transfers the goats to Gilead, where there still 
existed grazing-places. In the Judean world the poet could find 
nothing to suggest the idealization of the shepherd. As he, 
nevertheless, represents the simple life, as opposed to courtly 
extravagance, through the figures of shepherds, he must have 
worked from a foreign model. But Theocritus was the first 
perfect pastoral poet. Through his influence shepherd songs be- 
came a favorite genre. He had no lack of imitators. Theocritus 
had full reason to contrast court and rustic life and idealize the 
latter, for in his native Sicily there were still shepherds in 
primitive simplicity. Under his influence and that of his fol- 
lowers, it became the fashion to represent the simple life in pas- 
toral guise. The poet of Canticles — who wrote for cultured 
circles — was forced to make use of the convention. But, as though 
to excuse himself for taking a Judean shepherd as a representa- 
tive of the higher virtues, he made his shepherd one who feeds 
among the lilies. It is not the rude neat-herds of Gilead or the 
Judean desert that hold such noble dialogues, but shepherds of 
delicate refinement. In a word, the whole eclogic character of 
Canticles appears to be copied from the Theocritan model." 

This contention would be conclusive, If It were 
based on demonstrable facts. But what Is the evi- 

197 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

dence for It? Graetz offers none in his brilliant 
Commentary on Canticles, In proof of his start- 
ling view that, throughout post-Exilic times, the 
shepherd vocation was held in low repute among 
Israelites, he merely refers to an article in his 
Monatsschrift (1870, p. 483). When one turns 
to that, one finds that it concerns a far later period, 
the second Christian century, when the shepherd 
vocation had fallen to the grade of a small and dis- 
reputable trade. The vocation was then no longer 
a necessary corollary of the sacrificial needs of the 
Temple. While the altar of Jerusalem required 
Its holocausts, the breeders of the animals would 
hardly have been treated as pariahs. In the cen- 
tury immediately following the destruction of the 
Temple, the shepherd began to fall in moral es- 
teem, and in the next century he was included 
among the criminal categories. No doubt, too, as 
the tender of flocks was often an Arab raider, the 
shepherd had become a dishonest poacher on other 
men's preserves. The attitude towards him was, 
further, an outcome of the deepening antagonism 
between the schoolmen and the peasantry. But 
even then it was by no means invariable. One of 
the most famous of Rabbis, Akiba, who died a 
martyr in 135 c. e., was not only a shepherd, but 

198 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

he was also the hero of the most romantic of Rab- 
binic love episodes. 

At the very time when Graetz thinks that agri- 
culture had superseded pastoral pursuits In general 
esteem, the Book of Eccleslastlcus was written. On 
the one side, SIrach, the author of this Apocryphal 
work, does not hesitate (ch. xxlv) to compare his 
beloved Wisdom to a garden, In the same rustic 
Images that we find In Canticles ; and, on the other 
side, he reveals none of that elevated appreciation 
of agriculture which Graetz would have us expect. 
SIrach (xxxvll. 25) asks sarcastically : 

How shall he become wise that holdeth the plough, 
That glorieth in the shaft of the goad: 
That driveth oxen, and is occupied with their labors, 
And whose talk is of bullocks? 

Here It Is the farmer that Is despised, not a word 
Is hinted against the shepherd. SIrach also has 
little fondness for commerce, and he denies the 
possibility of wisdom to the artisan and craftsman, 
'' in whose ear Is ever the noise of the hammer " 
(ib. V. 28). SIrach, Indeed, Is not attacking these 
occupations; he regards them all as a necessary 
evil, " without these cannot a city be Inhabited " 
(v. 32). Our Jerusalem savant, as Dr. Schechter 
well terms him, of the third or fourth century 

199 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

B. C. E., IS merely illustrating his thesis, that 

The wisdom of the scribe cometh by opportunity of leisure; 
And he that hath little business shall become wise, 

or, as he puts it otherwise, sought for in the coun- 
cil of the people, and chosen to sit in the seat of 
the judge. This view finds its analogue in a 
famous saying of the later Jewish sage Hillel, 
" Not everyone who increaseth business attains 
wisdom" (Aboth, ii. 5). 

Undeniably, the shepherd lost in dignity in the 
periods of Jewish prosperity and settled city life. 
But, as George Adam Smith points out accurately, 
the prevailing character of Judea is naturally pas- 
toral, with husbandry only incidental. " Judea, 
indeed, ofiers as good ground as there is in all the 
East for observing the grandeur of the shepherd's 
character," — his devotion, his tenderness, his op- 
portunity of leisurely communion with nature. 
The same characterization must have held in an- 
cient times. And, after all, as Graetz himself 
admits, the poet of Canticles locates his shepherd 
in Gilead, the wild jasmine and other flowers of 
whose pastures (the '' lilies " of the Song) still 
excite the admiration of travellers. Laurence Oli- 
phant is lost in delight over the " anemones, cycla- 
mens, asphodels, iris," which burst on his view as 

200 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

he rode " knee-deep through the long, rich, sweet 
grass, abundantly studded with noble oak and tere- 
binth trees," and all this in Gilead. When, then, 
the Hebrew poet placed his shepherd and his flocks 
among the lilies, he was not trying to conciliate 
the courtly aristocrats of Jerusalem, or recon- 
cile them to his Theocritan conventions; he was 
simply drawing his picture from life. 

And as to the poetical idealization of the shep- 
herd, how could a Hebrew poet fail to idealize 
him, under the ever-present charm of his tradi- 
tional lore, of Jacob the shepherd-patriarch, 
Moses the shepherd-lawgiver, David the shepherd- 
king, and Amos the shepherd-prophet? So God 
becomes the Shepherd of Israel, not only explicitly 
In the early twenty-third Psalm, but Implicitly also. 
In the late 119th. The same idealization Is found 
everywhere in the Rabbinic literature as well as in 
the New Testament. Moses is the hero of the 
beautiful Midrashic parable of the straying lamb, 
which he seeks In the desert, and bears in his 
bosom {Exodus Rabha, II). There Is, on the 
other hand, something topsy-turvy In Graetz's sug- 
gestion, that a Hebrew poet would go abroad for 
a conventional idealization of the shepherd char- 
acter, just when, on his theory, pastoral conditions 
were scorned and lightly esteemed at home. 

201 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

It was unnecessary, then, and Inappropriate for 
the author of Canticles to go to Theocritus for the 
pastoral characters of his poem. But did he bor- 
row its form and structure from the Greek? 
Nothing seems less akin than the slight dramatic 
interest of the idylls and the strong, If obscure, 
dramatic plot of Canticles. Budde has failed al- 
together to convince readers of the Song that no 
consistent story runs through it. It is, as has been 
said above, incredible that we should have before 
us nothing more than the disconnected ditties of a 
Syrian wedding-minstrel. Graetz knew nothing 
of the repertoire theory that has been based on 
Wetzstein's discoveries of modern Syrian mar- 
riage songs and dances. Graetz believed, as most 
still do, that Canticles Is a whole, not an aggrega- 
tion of parts; yet he held that, not only the drama- 
tis personae, but the very structure of the Hebrew 
poem must be traced to Theocritus. He appeals, 
in particular, to the second Idyll of the Greek poet, 
wherein the lady casts her magic spells in the vain 
hope of recovering the allegiance of her butterfly 
admirer. Obviously, there Is no kinship between 
the facile SImaltha of the Idyll and the difficult 
Shulammlth of Canticles: one the seeker, the other 
the sought; between the sensuous, unrestrained 

202 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

passion of the former and the self-sacrificing, con- 
tinent affection of the latter. The nobler concep- 
tions of love derive from the Judean maiden, not 
from the Greek paramour. But, argues Graetz 
with extraordinary ingenuity, Simaitha, recounting 
her unfortunate love-affair, introduces, as Shulam- 
mlth does, dialogues between herself and her ab- 
sent lover; she repeats what he said to her, and she 
to him ; her monologue is no more a soliloquy than 
are the monologues of Shulammith, for both have 
an audience : here Thestylls, there the chorus of 
women. Simaltha's second refrain, as she bewails 
her love, after casting the ingredients into the 
bowl, turning the magic wheel to draw home to 
her the man she loves, runs thus: 

Bethink thee, mistress Moon, whence came my love! 

Graetz compares this to Shulammlth's refrain in 
Canticles : 

I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, 

By the roes. 

And by the hinds of the field, 
That ye stir not up 
Nor awaken love. 

Until it please! 

But in meaning the refrains have an absolutely 
opposite sense, and, more than that, they have an 

203 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

absolutely opposite function. In the Idyll the re- 
frain Is an accompaniment, in the Song it is an 
intermezzo. It occurs three times (ii. 7; iii. 5; 
and viii. 4) , and like other repeated refrains in the 
Song concludes a scene, marks a transition in the 
situation. In Theocritus refrains are links, in the 
Song they are breaks in the chain. 

Refrains are of the essence of lyric poetry as 
soon as anything like narrative enters into it. 
They are found throughout the lyrics of the Old 
Testament, the Psalms providing several examples. 
They belong to the essence of the Hebrew strophic 
system. And so it is with the other structural de- 
vices to which Graetz refers : reminiscent narrative, 
reported dialogues, scenes within the scene — all 
are common features (with certain differences) of 
the native Hebraic style, and they supply no justi- 
fication for the suggestion of borrowing from non- 
Hebraic models. 

There have, on the other side, been many, es- 
pecially among older critics, who have contended 
that Theocritus owed his inspiration to Canticles. 
These have not been disturbed by the considera- 
tion, that. If he borrowed at all, he must assuredly 
have borrowed more than the most generous of 
them assert that he did. Recently an ingenious 

204 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

advocate of this view has appeared in Professor 
D. S. Margoliouth, all of whose critical work is 
rich in originality and surprises. In the first chap- 
ter of his " Lines of Defence of the Biblical Reve- 
lation," he turns the tables on Graetz with quite 
entertaining thoroughness. Graetz was certain 
that no Hebrew poet could have drawn his shep- 
herds from life; Margoliouth Is equally sure that 
no Greek could have done so. 

"That this style [bucolic poetry], in which highly artificial 
performances are ascribed to shepherds and cowherds, should 
have originated in Greece, would be surprising; for the persons 
who followed these callings were ordinarily slaves, or humble 
hirelings, whom the classical writers treat with little respect. 
But from the time of Theocritus their profession becomes asso- 
ciated with poetic art. The shepherd's clothes are donned by 
Virgil, Spenser, and Milton. The existence of the Greek transla- 
tion of the Song of Solomon gives us the explanation of this fact. 
The Song of Solomon is a pastoral poem, but its pictures are true 
to nature. The father of the writer [Margoliouth believes in the 
Solomonic authorship of Canticles], himself both a king and a 
poet, had kept sheep. The combination of court life with country 
life, which in Theocritus seems so unnatural, was perfectly 
natural in pre-Exilic Palestine. Hence the rich descriptions of 
the country (ii. 12) beside the glowing descriptions of the king's 
wealth (iii. 10). Theocritus can match both (Idylls vii and xv), 
but it may be doubted whether he could have found any Greek 
model for either." 

205 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

It Is disturbing to one's confidence in the value 
of Biblical criticism — both of the liberal school 
(Graetz) and the conservative (Margoliouth) — 
to come across so complete an antithesis. But 
things are not quite so bad as they look. Each 
critic is half right — Margoliouth in believing the 
pastoral pictures of Canticles true to Judean life, 
Graetz in esteeming the pastoral pictures of the 
Idylls true to Sicilian life. The English critic sup- 
ports his theme with some philological arguments. 
He suggests that the vagaries of the Theocritan 
dialect are due to the fact that the Idyllist was a 
foreigner, whose native language was " probably 
Hebrew or Syriac." Or perhaps Theocritus used 
the Greek translation of the Song, *' unless The- 
ocritus himself was the translator.'* All of this is 
a capital jeu d' esprit, but It Is scarcely possible that 
Canticles was translated Into Greek so early as 
Theocritus, and, curiously enough, the Septuagint 
Greek version of the Song has less linguistic like- 
ness to the phraseology of Theocritus than has 
the Greek version of the Song by a contempo- 
rary of Akiba, the proselyte Aquila. Margoliouth 
points out a transference by Theocritus of the 
word for daughter-in-law to the meaning bride 
(Idyll, xvIII. 15). This Is a Hebraism, he thinks. 

206 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

But expansions of meaning In words signifying 
relationship are common to all poets. Far more 
curious is a transference of this kind that Theoc- 
ritus does not make. Had he known Canticles, 
he would surely have seized upon the Hebrew 
use of sister to mean beloved, a usage which, in- 
nocent and tender enough in the Hebrew, would 
have been highly acceptable to the Incestuous pat- 
ron of Theocritus, who actually married his full 
sister. Strange to say, the ancient Egyptian love 
poetry employs the terms brother and sister as 
regular denotations of a pair of lovers. 

This last allusion to an ancient Egyptian simi- 
larity to a characteristic usage of Canticles leads to 
the remark, that Maspero and Spiegelberg have 
both published hieroglyphic poems of the xixth- 
xxth Dynasties, In which may be found other paral- 
lels to the metaphors and symbolism of the He- 
brew Song. As earlier writers exaggerated the 
likeness of Canticles to Theocritus, so Maspero 
was at first Inclined to exaggerate the affinity of 
Canticles to the old Egyptian amatory verse. It 
Is not surprising, but It Is saddening, to find that 
Maspero, summarizing his Interesting discovery In 
1883, used almost the same language as Lessing 
had used In 1777 with reference to Theocritus. 

207 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

Maspero, It Is true, was too sane a critic to assert 
borrowing on the part of Canticles. But he speaks 
of the " same manner of speech, the same Images, 
the same comparisons," as Lessing does. Now If 
A=B, and B = C, then It follows that A=C. But 
In this case A does not equal C. There Is no simi- 
larity at all between the Egyptian Songs and The- 
ocritus. It follows that there Is no essential like- 
ness betwen Canticles and either of the other two. 
In his later books, Maspero has tacitly withdrawn 
his assertion of close Egyptian similarity, and It 
would be well If an equally frank withdrawal were 
made by the advocates of a close Theocrltan 
parallel. 

Some of the suggested resemblances between 
the Hebrew and Greek Songs are perhaps Inter- 
esting enough to be worth examining In detail. In 
Idyll I. 24, the goatherd offers this reward to 
Thyrsis, If he will but sing the song of Daphnis: 

I'll give thee first 
To milk, ay, thrice, a goat; she suckles twins, 
Yet ne'ertheless can fill two milkpails full. 

It can hardly be put forward as a remarkable fact 
that the poet should refer to so common an Inci- 
dent In sheep-breeding as the birth of twins. Yet 
the twins have been forced Into the dispute, though 

208 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

It IS hard to conceive anything more unlike than 
the previous quotation and the one that follows 
from Canticles (iv. 2) : 

Thy teeth are like a flock of ewes, 
That are newly shorn, 
Which are come up from the washing, 

Whereof every one hath twins, 

And none is bereaved among them. 

It is doubtful whether the Hebrew knows any- 
thing at all of the twin-bearing ewes; the penulti- 
mate line ought rather to be rendered (as in the 
margin of the Revised Version) " thy teeth .... 
which are all of them in pairs.'^ But, however 
rendered, the Hebrew means this. Theocritus 
speaks of the richness of the goat's milk, for, after 
having fed her twins, she has still enough milk to 
fill two pails. In Canticles, the maiden's teeth, 
spotlessly white, are smooth and even, " they run 
accurately in pairs, the upper corresponding to the 
lower, and none of them is wanting " (Harper). 

Even more amusing is the supposed indebted- 
ness on one side or the other in the reference made 
by Theocritus and Canticles to the ravages of 
foxes in vineyards. Theocritus has these beautiful 
lines in his first Idyll (lines 44 et seq,) : 
14 209 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

Hard by that wave-beat sire a vineyard bends 
Beneath its graceful load of burnished grapes; 
A boy sits on the rude fence watching them. 
Near him two foxes: down the rows of grapes 
One ranging steals the ripest; one assails 
With wiles the poor lad's scrip, to leave him soon 
Stranded and supperless. He plaits meanwhile 
With ears of corn a right fine cricket-trap, 
And fits it in a rush: for vines, for scrip, 
Little he cares, enamored of his toy. 

How different the scene in Canticles (ii. 14 et seq.) 
that has been quoted above I 

Take us the foxes, 

The little foxes, 

That spoil the vineyards. 
For our vineyards are in blossom! 

Canticles alludes to the destruction of the young 
shoots, Theocritus pictures the foxes devouring the 
ripe grapes. (Comp. also Idyll v. 112.) Foxes 
commit both forms of depredation, but the poets 
have seized on different aspects of the fact. Even 
were the aspects identical, it would be ridiculous 
to suppose that the Sicilian or Judean had been 
guilty of plagiarism. To-day, as of old, in the 
vineyards of Palestine you may see the little stone 
huts of the watchers on the lookout for the foxes, 

210 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

or jackals, whose visitations begin in the late spring 
and continue to the autumn. In Canticles we have 
a genuine fragment of native Judean folk-song ; in 
Theocritus an equally native item of every sea- 
son's observation. 

So with most of the other parallels. It Is only 
necessary to set out the passages in full, to see that 
the similarity is Insignificant in relation to the real 
differences. One would have thought that any 
poet dealing with rustic beauty might light on the 
fact that a sunburnt skin may be attractive. Yet 
Margollouth dignifies this simple piece of observa- 
tion Into a theory! " The theory that swarthiness 
produced by sun-burning need not be disfiguring to 
a woman " Is, Margollouth holds, taken by The- 
ocritus from Canticles. Graetz, as usual, reverses 
the relation: Canticles took It from Theocritus. 
But beyond the not very recondite Idea that a sun- 
burnt maid may still be charming, there Is no paral- 
lel. Battus sings (Idyll x. 26 et seq.) : 

Fair Bombyca! thee do men report 

Lean, dusk, a gipsy: I alone nut-brown. 

Violets and pencilled hyacinths are swart, 

Yet first of flowers they're chosen for a crown. 

As goats pursue the clover, wolves the goat, 

And cranes the ploughman, upon thee I dote! 
211 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

In Canticles the Shulammlte protests (i« 5 ^^ seq,): 

I am black but comely, 

O ye daughters of Jerusalem ! 
[Black] as the tents of Kedar, 
[Comely] as the curtains of Solomon. 

Despise me not because I am swarthy, 
Because the sun hath scorched me. 
My mother's sons were Incensed against me. 
They made me the keeper of the vineyards. 
But mine own vineyard I have not kept! 

Two exquisite lyrics these, of which it is hard to 
say which has been more influential as a key-note 
of later poetry. But neither of them is derived; 
each is too spontaneous, too fresh from the poet's 
soul. 

Before turning to one rather arrestive parallel, 
a word may be said on Graetz's idea, that Can- 
ticles uses the expression " love's arrows." Were 
this so, the symbolism could scarcely be attributed 
to other than a Greek original. The line occurs 
in the noble panegyric of love cited before, with 
which Canticles ends, and in which the whole 
drama culminates. There is no room in this eulogy 
for Graetz's rendering, " Her arrows are fiery 
arrows," nor can the Hebrew easily mean it. 
" The flashes thereof are flashes of fire," Is the 

212 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

best translation possible of the Hebrew line. 
There Is nothing Greek In the comparison of love 
to fire, for fire Is used In common Hebrew Idiom 
to denote any powerful emotion (comp. the asso- 
ciation of fire with jealousy In Ezeklel xxxix. 4). 

Ewald, while refusing to connect the Idylls with 
Canticles, admitted that one particular parallel Is 
at first sight forcible. It Is the comparison of both 
Helen and Shulammlth to a horse. Margollouth 
thinks the Greek Inexplicable without the Hebrew ; 
Graetz thinks the Hebrew Inexplicable without the 
Greek. In point of fact, the Hebrew and the 
Greek do not explain each other In the least. In 
the Epithalamlum (Idyll xvIII. 30) Theocritus 
writes, 

Or as in a chariot a mare of Thessalian breed, 
So is rose-red Helen, the glory of Lacedemon. 

The exact point of comparison is far from clear, 
but It must be some feature of beauty or grace. 
Such a comparison, says Margollouth, Is extraordi- 
nary In a Greek poet; he must have derived It from 
a non-Greek source. But it has escaped this critic 
and all the commentaries on Theocritus, that just 
this comparison is perfectly natural for a Sicilian 
poet, familiar with several series of Syracusan 
coins of all periods, on which appear chariots with' 

213 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

Nike driving horses of the most delicate beauty, 
fit figures to compare to a maiden's grace of form. 
Theocritus, however, does not actually compare 
Helen to the horse; she beautifies or sets off Lace- 
demon as the horse sets off the chariot. Graetz, 
convinced that the figure is Greek, pronounces the 
Hebrew unintelligible without it. But it is quite 
appropriate to the Hebrew poet. Having identi- 
fied his royal lover with Solomon, the poet was 
almost driven to make some allusion to Solomon's 
famed exploit in importing costly horses and chari- 
ots from Egypt (I Kings x. 26-29). And so Can- 
ticles says (i. 9) : 

I have compared thee, O my love, 
To a team of horses, in Pharaoh's chariots. 
Thy cheeks are comely with rows of pearls, 
Thy neck with chains of gold. 

The last couplet refers to the ornaments of the 
horse's bridle and neck. Now, to the Hebrew the 
horse was almost invariably associated with war. 
The Shulammite is elsewhere (vi. 4) termed " ter- 
rible as an army with banners." In Theocritus the 
comparison is primarily to Helen's beauty; in Can- 
ticles to the Shulammite's awesomeness, 

Turn away thine eyes from me. 
For they have made me afraid. 
214 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

These foregoing points of resemblance are the 
most significant that have been adduced. And 
they are not only seen to be each unimportant and 
inconclusive, but they have no cumulative effect. 
Taken as wholes, as was said above, the Idylls and 
Canticles are the poles asunder in their moral atti- 
tude towards love and in their general literary 
treatment of the theme. Of course, poets describ- 
ing the spring will always speak of the birds; 
Greek and Hebrew loved flowers, Jew and Egyp- 
tian heard the turtle-dove as a harbinger of na- 
ture's rebirth; sun and moon are everywhere types 
of warm and tender feelings ; love is the converter 
of a winter of discontent into a glorious summer. 
In all love poems the wooer would fain embrace 
the wooed. And if she prove coy, he will tell of 
the menial parts he would be ready to perform, to 
continue unrebuked in her vicinity. Anacreon's 
lover (xx) would be water in which the maid 
should bathe, and the Egyptian sighs, " Were I but 
the washer of her clothes, I should breathe the 
scent of her.'' Or the Egyptian will cry, *' O were 
I the ring on her finger, that I might be ever with 
her," just as the Shulammlte bids her beloved 
(though In another sense) " Place me as a seal 
on thine hand" (Cant. vill. 6). Love Intoxicates 

215 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

like wine; the maiden has a honeyed tongue; her 
forehead and neck are like Ivory. Nothing in all 
this goes beyond the identity of feeling that Jles 
behind all poetical expression. But even in this 
realm of metaphor and image and symbolism, 
the North-Semitic wasf and even more the He- 
braic parallels given In other parts of the Bible are 
closer far. Hosea xiv. 6-9 (with its lilies, its fig- 
ure of Israel growing in beauty as the olive tree, 
"and his smell as Lebanon"), Proverbs (with 
its eulogy of faithful wedded love. Its lips dropping 
honeycomb, its picture of a bed perfumed with 
myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon, the wife to love whom 
Is to drink water from one's own well, and she the 
pleasant roe and loving hind) — these and the 
royal Epithalamlum (Ps. xlv), and other Biblical 
passages too numerous to quote, constitute the real 
parallels to the imagery and Idealism of Canticles. 
The only genuine resemblance arises from iden- 
tity of environment. If Theocritus and the poet 
of Canticles were contemporaries, they wrote when 
there had been a somewhat sudden growth of 
town life both in Egypt and Palestine. Alexander 
the Great and his immediate successors were the 
most assiduous builders of new cities that the 
world has ever seen. The charms of town life 

216 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

made an easy conquest of the Orient. But pastoral 
life would not surrender without a struggle. It 
would, during this violent revolution in habits, re- 
assert itself from time to time. We can suppose 
that after a century of experience of the delusions 
of urban comfort, the denizens of towns would 
welcome a reminder of the delights of life under 
the open sky. There would be a longing for some- 
thing fresher, simpler, freer. At such a moment 
Theocritus, like the poet of Canticles, had an Irre- 
sistible opportunity, and to this extent the Idylls 
and the Song are parallel. 

But, on the other hand, when we pass from ex- 
ternal conditions to Intrinsic purport, nothing 
shows better the difference between Theocritus and 
Canticles than the fact that the Hebrew poem has 
been so susceptible of allegorlzation. Though the 
religious, symbolical interpretation of the Song be 
far from Its primary meaning, yet In the Hebrew 
muse the sensuous and the mystical glide Imper- 
ceptibly Into one another. And this Is true of 
Semitic poetry In general. It Is possible to give a 
mystical turn to the quatrains of Omar Khayyam. 
But this can hardly be done with Anacreon. There 
Is even less trace of Semitic mysticism In Theocri- 
tus than In Anacreon. Idylls and Canticles have 

217 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

some similarities. But these are only skin deep. 
In their heart of hearts the Greek and Judean 
poets are strangers, and so are their heroes and 
heroines. 

No apology is needed for the foregoing lengthy 
discussion of the Song of Songs, seeing that it is 
Incomparably the finest love poem in the Hebrew, 
or any other language. And this is true whatever 
be one's opinion of its primary significance. It 
was no doubt its sacred Interpretation that im- 
parted to it so lasting a power over religious sym- 
bolism. But its human import also entered into 
Its eternal Influence. The Greek peasants of 
Macedonia still sing echoes from the Hebrew song. 
Still may be heard, in modern Greek love chants, 
the sweet old phrase, " black but comely," a favor- 
ite phrase with all swarthy races; "my sister, my 
bride " remains as the most tender term of endear- 
ment. To a certain extent the service has been re- 
paid. Some of the finest melodies to which the 
Synagogue hymns, or Piyyutim, are set, are the 
melodies to Achoth Ketannah, based on Canticles 
vIII. 8, and Berach Dodi, a frequent phrase of the 
Hebrew book. The latter melody is similar to 
the finer melodies of the Levant; the former strik- 
ingly recalls the contemporary melodies of the 

218 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

Greek Archipelago. To turn a final glance at the 
other side of the Indebtedness, we need only recall 
that Edmund Spenser's famous Marriage Ode — 
the Epithalamium — the noblest marriage ode In 
the English language, and Milton's equally famous 
description of Paradise In the fourth book of his 
Epic, owe a good deal to direct Imitation of the 
Song of Songs. It Is scarcely an exaggeration to 
assert that the stock-in-trade of many an erotic 
poet Is simply the phraseology of the divine song 
which we have been considering so inadequately. 
It did not start as a repertoire ; it has ended as one. 
We must now make a great stride through the 
ages. Between the author of the Song of Songs 
and the next writer of Inspired Hebrew love songs 
there stretches an interval of at least fourteen cen- 
turies. It is an oft-told story, how, with the de- 
struction of the Temple, the Jewish desire for song 
temporarily ceased. The sorrow-laden heart 
could not sing of love. The disuse of a faculty 
leads to Its loss; and so, with the cessation of the 
desire for song, the gift of singing became atro- 
phied. But the decay was not quite complete. It 
Is commonly assumed that post-Biblical Hebrew 
poetry revived for sacred ends; first hymns were 
written, then secular songs. But Dr. Brody has 

219 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

proved that this assumption is erroneous. In 
point of fact, the first Hebrew poetry after the 
Bible was secular not religious. We find in the 
pages of Talmud and Midrash rehcs and frag- 
ments of secular poetry, snatches of bridal songs, 
riddles, elegies, but less evidence of a religious 
poetry. True, when once the medieval burst of 
Hebrew melody established itself, the Hebrew 
hymns surpassed the secular Hebrew poems in 
originality and inspiration. But the secular verses, 
whether on ordinary subjects, or as addresses to 
famous men, and invocations on documents, at 
times far exceed the religious poems in range and 
number. And in many ways the secular poetry de- 
serves very close attention. A language is not liv- 
ing when it is merely ecclesiastical. No one calls 
Sanskrit a living language because some Indian 
sects still pray in Sanskrit. But when Jewish poets 
took to using Hebrew again — if, indeed, they ever 
ceased to use it— -as the language of daily life, as 
the medium for expressing their human emotions, 
then one can see that the sacred tongue was on the 
way to becoming once more what it is to-day in 
many parts of Palestine — the living tongue of 
men. 

It must not be thought that in the Middle Ages 
220 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

there were two classes of Hebrew poets: those 
who wrote hymns and those who wrote love songs. 
With the exception of Solomon ibn Gablrol — a 
big exception, I admit — the best love songs were 
written by the best hymn writers. Even Ibn Gabl- 
rol, who, so far as we know, wrote no love songs, 
composed other kinds of secular poetry. One of 
the favorite poetical forms of the Middle Ages 
consisted of metrical letters to friends — one may 
almost assert that the best Hebrew love poetry is 
of this type — epistles of affection between man and 
man, expressing a love passing the love of woman. 
Ibn Gablrol wrote such epistles, but the fact re- 
mains that we know of no love verses from his 
hand; perhaps this confirms the tradition that he 
was the victim of an unrequited affection. 

Thus the new form opens not with Ibn Gablrol, 
but with Samuel ibn Nagrela. He was Vizier of 
the Khallf, and Nagid, or Prince, of the Jews, in 
the eleventh century in Spain, and, besides Syna- 
gogue hymns and Talmudic treatises, he wrote 
love lyrics. The earlier hymns of Kallr have, in- 
deed, a strong emotional undertone, but the Span- 
ish school may justly claim to have created a new 
form. And this new form opens with Samuel the 
Nagld's pretty verses on his " Stammering Love,'* 

221 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

who means to deny, but stammers out assent. I 
cite the metrical German version of Dr. Egers, 
because I have found it impossible to reproduce 
(Dr. Egers is not very precise or happy in his at- 
tempt to reproduce) the puns of the original. The 
sense, however, is clear. The stammering maid's 
words, being mumbled, convey an invitation, when 
they were intended to repulse her loving admirer. 

Wo ist mein stamraelnd Lieb? 
Wo sie, die wiirz'ge, blieb? 
Verdunkelt der Mond der Sterne Licht, 
Ueberstrahlt den Mond ihr Angesicht! 
Wie Schwalbe, wie Kranich, die 
Bei ihrer Ankunft girren, 
Vertraut auf ihren Gott auch sie 
In ihrer Zunge Irren. 

Mir schmollend rief sie " Erzdieb," 
Hervor doch haucht sie " Herzdieb " — 
Hin springe ich zum Herzlieb. 
" Ehrloser ! " statt zu wehren, 
" Her, Loser ! " lasst sie horen ; 
Nur rascher dem Begehren 
Folgt' ich mit ihr zu kosen, 
Die lieblich ist wie Rosen. 

This poem deserves attention, as it is one of the 
first, if not actually the very first, of its kind. The 
Hebrew poet is forsaking the manner of the Bible 

222 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

for the manner of the Arabs. One point of re- 
semblance between the new Hebrew and the Ara- 
bic love poetry Is obscured In the translation. In 
the Hebrew of Samuel the Nagid the terms of 
endearment, applied though they are to a girl, are 
all In the masculine gender. This, as Dr. Egers 
observes, is a common feature of the Arabic and 
Persian love poetry of ancient and modern times. 
An Arab poet will praise his fair one's face as 
*' bearded " with garlands of lilies. Hafiz de- 
scribes a girl's cheeks as roses within a net of vio- 
lets, the net referring to the beard. Jehudah Halevi 
uses this selfsame image, and Moses Ibn Ezra and 
the rest also employ manly figures of speech In por- 
traying beautiful women. All this goes to show 
how much, besides rhyme and versification, medi- 
eval Hebrew love poetry owed to Arabic models. 
Here, for instance, is an Arabic poem, whose au- 
thor, Radhi Blllah, died in 940, that is, before the 
Spanish Jewish poets began to write of love. To 
an Arabic poet Lalla replaces the Lesbia of Catul- 
lus and the Chloe of the Elizabethans. This 
tenth century Arabic poem runs thus : 

Laila, whene'er I gaze on thee, 

My altered cheeks turn pale; 
While upon thine, sweet maid, I see 

A deep'ning blush prevail. 
223 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

Laila, shall I the cause Impart 

Why such a change takes place? — 

The crimson stream deserts my heart 
To mantle on thy face. 

Here we have fully in bloom, in the tenth cen- 
tury, those conceits which meet us, not only in the 
Hebrew poets of the next two centuries, but also 
in the English poets of the later Elizabethan age. 
It is very artificial and scarcely sincere, but also un- 
deniably attractive. Or, again, in the lines of Zo- 
heir, addressed by the lover to a messenger that 
has just brought tidings from the beloved, 

Oh! let me look upon thine eyes again, 
For they have looked upon the maid I love, 

we have, in the thirteenth century, the very airs 
and tricks of the cavalier poets. In fact, it can- 
not be too often said that love poetry, like love it- 
self, is human and eternal, not of a people and an 
age, but of all men and all times. Though 
fashions change in poetry as in other ornament, 
still the language of love has a long life, and age 
after age the same conceits and terms of endear- 
ment meet us. Thus Hafiz has these lines, 

I praise God who made day and night: 
Day thy countenance, and thy hair the night. 
224 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

Long before him the Hebrew poet Abraham Ibn 
Ezra had written, 

On thy cheeks and the hair of thy head 

I will bless: He formeth light and maketh darkness. 

In the thirteenth century the very same witticism 
meets us again, in the Hebrew Machheroth of Im- 
manuel. But obviously it would be an endless 
task to trace the similarities of poetic diction be- 
tween Hebrew and other poets : suffice it to realize 
that such similarities exist. 

Such similarities did not, however, arise only 
from natural causes. They were, in part at all 
events, due to artificial, compulsion. It is well to 
bear this in mind, for the recurrence of identical 
Images in Hebrew love poem after love poem im- 
presses a Western reader as a defect. To the Ori- 
ental reader, on the contrary, the repetition of 
metaphors seemed a merit. It was one of the rules 
of the game. In his " Literary History of Per- 
sia " Professor Browne makes this so clear that a 
citation from him will save me many pages. Pro- 
fessor Browne (il, 83) analyzes Sharafu'd-Din 
Rami's rhetorical handbook entitled the " Lover's 
Companion." The '' Companion " legislates as 
to the similes and figures that may be used In de- 
scribing the features of a girl. 
16 225 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

" It contains nineteen chapters, treating respectively of the hair, 
the forehead, the eyebrows, the eyes, the eyelashes, the face, the 
down on lips and cheeks, the mole or beauty-spot, the lips, the 
teeth, the mouth, the chin, the neck, the bosom, the arm, the 
fingers, the figure, the waist, and the legs. In each chapter the 
author first gives the various terms applied by the Arabs and 
Persians to the part which he is discussing, differentiating them 
when any difference In meaning exists; then the metaphors used 
by writers in speaking of them, and the epithets applied to them, 
the whole copiously Illustrated by examples from the poets." 

No Other figures of speech would be admissible. 
Now this *' Companion " belongs to the fourteenth 
century, and the earlier Arabic and Persian poetry 
was less fettered. But principles of this kind 
clearly affected the Hebrew poets, and hence there 
arises a certain monotony In the songs, especially 
when they are read In translation. The monotony 
Is not so painfully prominent In the originals. For 
the translator can only render the substance, and 
the substance Is often more conventional than the 
nuances of form, the happy turns and subtleties, 
which evaporate In the process of translation, leav- 
ing only the conventional sediment behind. 

This Is true even of Jehudah HalevI, though in 
him we hear a genuinely original note. In his Syn- 
agogue hymns he joins hands with the past, with 
the Psalmists; In his love poems he joins hands 

226 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

With the future, with Heine. His love poetry is 
at once dainty and sincere. He draws indiscrimi- 
nately on Hebrew and Arabic models, but he is no 
mere imitator. I will not quote much from him, 
for his best verses are too familiar. Those exam- 
ples which I must present are given in a new and 
hitherto unpublished translation by Mrs. Lucas. 

MARRIAGE SONG 

Fair is my dove, my loved one, 
None can with her compare: 
Yea, comely as Jerusalem, 
Like unto Tirzah fair. 

Shall she in tents unstable 

A wanderer abide. 
While in my heart awaits her 

A dwelling deep and wide? 

The magic of her beauty 

Has stolen my heart away: 
Not Egypt's wise enchanters 

Held half such wondrous sway. 

E'en as the changing opal 

In varying lustre glows. 
Her face at every moment 

New charms and sweetness shows. 
227 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

White lilies and red roses 
There blossom on one stem: 

Her lips of crimson berries 
Tempt mine to gather them. 

By dusky tresses shaded 

Her brow gleams fair and pale, 
Like to the sun at twilight, 

Behind a cloudy veil. 

Her beauty shames the day-star. 
And makes the darkness light: 

Day in her radiant presence 
Grows seven times more bright. 

This is a lonely lover! 

Come, fair one, to his side. 
That happy be together 

The bridegroom and the bride! 

The hour of love approaches 
That shall make one of twain; 

Soon may be thus united 
All Israel's hosts again! 

OPHRAH 

To her sleeping Loire 

Awake, my fair, my love, awake, 

That I may gaze on thee I 

And if one fain to kiss thy lips 

Thou in thy dreams dost see, 

Lo, I myself then of thy dream 

The interpreter will be ! 

228 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 
TO OPHRAH 

Ophrah shall wash her garments white 

In rivers of my tears, 
And dry them in the radiance bright 

That shines when she appears. 
Thus will she seek no sun nor water nigh, 
Her beauty and mine eyes will all her needs supply. 

These lovers' tears often meet us In the Hebrew 
poems. Ibn Gabirol speaks of his tears as ferti- 
lizing his heart and preserving it from crumbling 
Into dust. Mostly, however, the Hebrew lover's 
tears, when they are not tokens of grief at the ab- 
sence of the beloved, are the involuntary confes- 
sion of the man's love. It Is the men who must 
weep In these poems. Charlzl sings of the lover 
whose heart succeeds In concealing its love, whose 
lips contrive to maintain silence on the subject, but 
his tears play traitor and betray his affection to all 
the world. Dr. Sulzbach aptly quotes parallels to 
this fancy from Goethe and Brentano. 

This suggestion of parallelism between a medi- 
eval Hebrew poet and Goethe must be my excuse 
for an excursion Into what seems to me one of the 
most Interesting examples of the kind. In one of 
his poems Jehudah HalevI has these lines : 



229 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

SEPARATION 
So we must be divided ! Sweetest, stay ! 

Once more mine eyes would seek thy glance's light I 
At night I shall recall thee; thou, I pray, 

Be mindful of the days of our delight! 
Come to me in my dreams, I ask of thee, 
And even in thy dreams be gentle unto me ! 

If thou shouldst send me greeting in the grave, 
The cold breath of the grave itself were sweet; 

Oh, take my life ! my life, 'tis all I have. 
If I should make thee live I do entreat! 

I think that I shall hear, when I am dead, 

The rustle of thy gown, thy footsteps overhead. 

It Is this last image that has so interesting si 
literary history as to tempt me into a digression. 
But first a word must be said of the translation and 
the translator. The late Amy Levy made this 
rendering, not from the Hebrew, but from Geiger's 
German with obvious indebtedness to Emma 
Lazarus. So excellent, however, was Geiger's 
German that Miss Levy got quite close to the 
meaning of the original, though thirty-eight He- 
brew lines are compressed into twelve English. 
Literally rendered, the Hebrew of the last lines 
runs: 

Would that, when I am dead, to mine ears may rise 
The music of the golden bell upon thy skirts. 
230 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

This Image of the bell Is purely Hebraic; It Is, of 
course, derived from the High Priest's vest- 
ments. Jehudah HalevI often employs It to express 
melodious proclamation of virtue, or the widely- 
borne voice of fame. Here he uses It In another 
context, and though the Image of the bell Is not 
repeated, yet some famous lines from Tenny- 
son's *' Maud" at once come Into one's mind: 

She Is coming, my own, my sweet; 

Were it ever so light a tread, 
My heart would hear her and beat, 

Were it earth In an earthy bed; 
My dust would hear her and beat. 

Had I lain for a century dead; 
Would start and tremble under her feet. 

And blossom In purple and red. 

It Is thus that the lyric poetry of one age affects, 
or finds its echo In, that of another, but in this par- 
ticular case it Is, of course, a natural thought that 
true love must survive the grave. There is a mys- 
tical union between the two souls, which death can- 
not end. Here, again, we meet the close connec- 
tion between love and mysticism, which lies at the 
root of all deep love poetry. But we must attend 
to the literary history of the thought for a moment 
longer. Moses Ibn Ezra, though more famous 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

for his Synagogue hymns, had some lyric gifts of a 
lighter touch, and he wrote love songs on occasion. 
In one of these the poet represents a dying wife 
as turning to her husband with the pathetic prayer, 
" Remember the covenant of our youth, and 
knock at the door of my grave with a hand of 
love." 

I will allude only to one other parallel, which 
carries us to a much earlier period. Here is an 
Arab song of Taubah, son of Al-Humaiyir, who 
lived in the seventh century. It must be remem- 
bered that it was an ancient Arabic folk-idea that 
the spirits of the dead became owls. 

Ah, if but Laila would send me a greeting down 

of grace, though between us lay the dust and flags of stone, 

My greeting of joy should spring in answer, or there should cry 
toward her an owl, ill bird that shrieks in the gloom of graves. 

C. J. L. Lyall, writing of the author of these 
lines, Taubah, informs us that he was the cousin 
of Laila, a woman of great beauty. Taubah had 
loved her when they were children in the desert to- 
gether, but her father refused to give her to him 
in marriage. He led a stormy life, and met his 
death in a fight during the reign of Mu^awiyah. 
Laila long survived him, but never forgot him or 

232 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

his love for her. She attained great fame as a 
poetess, and died during the reign of 'Abd-al- 
Malik, son of Marwan, at an advanced age. " A 
tale Is told of her death in which these verses fig- 
ure. She was making a journey with her husband 
when they passed by the grave of Taubah. Laila, 
who was travelling In a litter, cried, By God! I 
will not depart hence till I greet Taubah. Her 
husband endeavored to dissuade her, but she would 
not hearken; so at last he allowed her. And she 
had her camel driven up the mound on which the 
tomb was, and said. Peace to thee, O Taubah! 
Then she turned her face to the people and said, 
I never knew him to speak falsely until this day. 
What meanest thou? said they. Was it not he, 
she answered, who said 

Ah, if but Laila would send a greeting down 

of grace, though between us lay the dust and flags of stone, 
My greeting of joy should spring in answer, or there should cry 

toward her an owl, ill bird that shrieks in the gloom of graves. 

Nay, but I have greeted him, and he has not an- 
swered as he said. Now, there was a she-owl 
crouching in the gloom by the side of the grave; 
and when It saw the litter and the crowd of people, 
it was frightened and flew in the face of the camel. 

233 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

And the camel was startled and cast Lalla head- 
long on the ground; and she died that hour, and 
was burled by the side of Taubah." 

The fascination of such parallels is fatal to pro- 
portion in an essay such as this. But I cannot 
honestly assert that I needed the space for other 
aspects of my subject. I have elsewhere fully de- 
scribed the Wedding Odes which Jehudah HalevI 
provided so abundantly, and which were long a 
regular feature of every Jewish marriage. But, 
after the brilliant Spanish period, Hebrew love 
songs lose their right to high literary rank. Satires 
on woman's wiles replace praises of her charms. 
On the other hand, what of inspiration the Hebrew 
poet felt in the erotic field beckoned towards mys- 
ticism. In the paper which opens this volume, I 
have written sufficiently and to spare of the woman- 
haters. At Barcelona, in the age of Zabara, Abra- 
ham ibn Chasdai did the best he could with his 
misogynist material, but he could get no nearer to 
a compliment than this, " Her face has the shim- 
mer of a lamp, but it burns when held too close " 
(" Prince and Dervish," ch. xviii). The Hebrew 
attacks on women are clever, but superficial; they 
show no depth of insight into woman's character, 
and are far less effective than Pope's satires. 

234 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

The boldest and ablest Hebrew love poet of the 
satirical school is Immanuel of Rome, a younger 
contemporary of Dante. He had wit, but not 
enough of it to excuse his ribaldry. He tells many 
a light tale of his amours; a pretty face is always 
apt to attract him and set his pen scribbling. As 
with the English dramatists of the Restoration, 
virtue and beauty are to Immanuel almost contra- 
dictory terms. For the most part, wrinkled old 
crones are the only decent women in his pages. 
His pretty women have morals as easy as the 
author professes. In the second of his Machhe- 
roth he contrasts two girls, Tamar and Berlah; on 
the one he showers every epithet of honor, at the 
other he hurls every epithet of abuse, only be- 
cause Tamar is pretty, and Beriah the reverse. 
Tamar excites the love of the angels, Beriah's face 
makes even the devil fly. This disagreeable pose 
of Immanuel was not confined to his age; it has 
spoilt some of the best work of W. S. Gilbert. The 
following is Dr. Chotzner's rendering of one of 
Immanuel's lyrics. He entitles it 
PARADISE AND HELL 

At times In my spirit I fitfully ponder, 

Where shall I pass after death from this light; 

Do Heaven's bright glories await me, I wonder, 
Or Lucifer's kingdom of darkness and night? 
235 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

In the one, though 'tis perhaps of ill reputation, 
A crowd of gay damsels will sit by my side; 

But in Heaven there's boredom and mental starvation, 
To hoary old men and old crones I'll be tied. 

And so I will shun the abodes of the holy, 
And fly from the sky, which is dull, so I deem: 

Let hell be my dwelling; there is no melancholy, 
Where love reigns for ever and ever supreme. 

Immanuel, it is only just to point out, occasion- 
ally draws a worthier character. In his third 
Machbereth he tells of a lovely girl, who is intelli- 
gent, modest, chaste, coy, and difficult, although a 
queen in beauty; she is simple in taste, yet exqui- 
site in poetical feeling and musical gifts. The 
character is the nearest one gets in Hebrew to the 
best heroines of the troubadours. Immanuel and 
she exchange verses, but the path of flirtation runs 
rough. They are parted, she, woman-like, dies, 
and he, man-like, sings an elegy. Even more to 
Immanuel's credit is his praise of his own wife. 
She has every womanly grace of body and soul. 
On her he showers compliments from the Song of 
Songs and the Book of Proverbs. If this be the 
true man revealed, then his light verses of love 
addressed to other women must be, as I have 
hinted, a mere pose. It may be that his wife read 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

his verses, and that his picture of her was calcu- 
lated to soothe her feelings when reading some 
other parts of his work. If she did read them, 
she found only one perfect figure of womanliness 
in her husband's poems, and that figure herself. 
But on the whole one Is Inclined to think that Im- 
manuel's braggartism as to his many love affairs 
IS only another aspect of the Renaissance habit, 
which Is exemplified so completely In the similar 
boasts of Benvenuto Cellini. 

Be this as It may. It Is not surprising to find that 
In the Shulchan Aruch {Orach Chayyim, ch. 317, 
§ 16), the poems of Immanuel are put upon the 
Sabbath Index. It Is declared unlawful to read 
them on Saturdays, and also on week-days, con- 
tinues the Code with gathering anger. Those who 
copy them, still more those who print them, are 
declared sinners that make others to sin. I must 
confess that I am here on the side of the Code. 
Immanuel's Machheroth are scarcely worthy of 
the Hebrew genius. 

There has been. It may be added, a long strug- 
gle against Hebrew love songs. Malmonides 
says ("Guide," Hi. 7): "The gift of speech 
which God gave us to help us learn and teach and 
perfect ourselves — this gift of speech must not be 

237 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

employed In doing what Is degrading and disgrace- 
ful. We must not Imitate the songs and tales of 
ignorant and lascivious people. It may be suitable 
to them, but It Is not fit for those who are bidden, 
Ye shall be a holy nation." In 141 5 Solomon 
Alaml uses words on this subject that will lead 
me to my last point. Alaml says, " Avoid listen- 
ing to love songs which excite the passions. If 
God has graciously bestowed on you the gift of a 
sweet voice, use It In praising Him. Do not set 
prayers to Arabic tunes, a practice which has been 
promoted to suit the taste of effeminate men." 

But If this be a crime, then the worst offender 
was none other than the famous Israel Najara. In 
the middle of the sixteenth century he added some 
of its choicest lyrics to the Hebrew song-book. 
The most popular of the table hymns (Zemlroth) 
are his. He was a mystic, filled with a sense of the 
nearness of God. But he did not see why the devil 
should have all the pretty tunes. So he delib- 
erately wrote religious poems in metres to suit 
Arabic, Turkish, Greek, Spanish, and Italian 
melodies, his avowed purpose being to divert the 
young Jews of his day from profane to sacred 
song. But these young Jews must have been exi- 
gent, Indeed, if they failed to find In Najara's sa- 

238 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

cred verses enough of love and passion. Not only 
was he, like Jehudah HalevI, a prolific writer of 
Wedding Odes, but In his most spiritual hymns he 
uses the language of love as no Hebrew poet be- 
fore or after him has done. Starting with the 
assumption that the Song of Songs was an alle- 
gory of God's espousal with the bride Israel, Na- 
jara did not hesitate to put the most passionate 
words of love for Israel into God's mouth. He 
was strongly attacked, but the saintly mystic Isaac 
Luria retorted that Najara's hymns were listened 
to with delight in Heaven — and if ever a man had 
the right to speak of Heaven It was Luria. And 
Hebrew poetry has no need to be ashamed of the 
passionate affection poured out by these mystic 
poets on another beloved, the Queen Sabbath. 

This Is not the place to speak of the Hebrew 
drama and of the form which the love interest 
takes In It. Woman, at all events. Is treated far 
more handsomely in the dramas than In the satires. 
The love scenes of the Hebrew dramatists are 
pure to coldness. These dramas began to flourish 
In the eighteenth century; Luzzatto was by no 
means an unworthy Imitator of Guarlnl. Some- 
times the syncretism of Ideas In Hebrew plays is 
sufficiently grotesque. Samuel Romanelli, who 

239 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

wrote in Italy at the era of the French Revolution, 
boldly introduces Greek mythology. It may be 
that In the Spanish period Hebrew poets intro- 
duced the muses under the epithet " daughters of 
Song." But with Romanelli, the classical ma- 
chinery is more clearly audible. The scene of his 
drama is laid In Cyprus; Venus and Cupid figure 
In the action. Romanelli gives a moral turn to his 
mythology, by interposing Peace to stay the con- 
flict between Love and Fame. Ephralm Luzzatto, 
at the same period, tried his hand, not unsuccess- 
fully, at Hebrew love sonnets. 

Love songs continued to be written In Hebrew 
In the nineteenth century, and often see the light in 
the twentieth. But I do not propose to deal with 
these. Recent new-Hebrew poetry has shown It- 
self strongest In satire and elegy. Its note Is one 
of anger or of pain. Shall we, however, say of 
the Hebrew race that it has lost the power to sing 
of love ? Has it grown too old, too decrepid ? 

And said I that my limbs were old, 
And said I that my blood was cold, 
And that my kindly fire was fled, 
And my poor wither'd heart was dead, 
And that I might not sing of love? 

Heine Is the answer. But Heine did not write 

240 



HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

in Hebrew, and those who have so far written In 
Hebrew are not Hemes. It Is, I think, vain to 
look to Europe for a new outburst of Hebrew love 
lyrics. In the East, and most of all In Palestine, 
where Hebrew is coming to Its own again, and 
where the spring once more smiles on the eyes of 
Jewish peasants and shepherds, there may arise 
another Inspired singer to give us a new Song of 
Songs In the language of the Bible. But we have 
no right to expect it. Such a rare thing of beauty 
cannot be repeated. It Is a joy forever, and a joy 
once for all. 

[Notes, pp. 308-310] 



16 241 



A HANDFUL OF CURIOSITIES 
I 

George Eliot and Solomon Maimon 

That George Eliot was well acquainted with cer- 
tain aspects of Jewish history, is fairly clear from 
her writings. But there is collateral evidence of 
an interesting kind that proves the same fact quite 
conclusively, I think. 

It will be remembered that Daniel Deronda 
went into a second-hand book-shop and bought a 
small volume for half a crown, thereby making the 
acquaintance of Ezra Cohen. Some time back I 
had in my hands the identical book that George 
Eliot purchased which formed the basis of the 
incident. The book may now be seen in Dr. Wil- 
liams's Library, Gordon Square, London. The few 
words in which George Eliot dismisses the book in 
her novel would hardly lead one to gather how 
carefully and conscientiously she had read the 
volume, which has since been translated into Eng- 
lish by Dr. J. Clark Murray. She, of course, 
bought and read the original German. 

242 



GEORGE ELIOT AND SOLOMON MAIMON 

The book is Solomon Maimon's Autobiography, 
a fascinating piece of self-revelation and of his- 
tory. (An admirable account of it may be found 
in chapter x of the fifth volume of the English 
translation of Graetz's " History of the Jews.") 
Maimon, cynic and skeptic, was a man all head 
and no heart, but he was not without " character," 
in one sense of the word. He forms a necessary 
link in the progress of modern Jews towards their 
newer culture. Schiller and Goethe admired him 
considerably, and, as we shall soon see, George 
Eliot was a careful student of his celebrated pages. 
Any reader who takes the book up, will hardly lay 
it down until he has finished the first part, at least. 

Several marginal and other notes in the copy of 
the Autobiography that belonged to George Eliot 
are, I am convinced, in her own handwriting, and 
I propose to print here some of her jottings, all of 
which are in pencil, but carefully written. Above 
the Introduction, she writes : " This book might 
mislead many readers not acquainted with other 
parts of Jewish history. But for a worthy account 
(in brief) of Judaism and Rabblnism, see p. 150." 
This reference takes one to the fifteenth chapter of 
the Autobiography. Indeed, George Eliot was 
right as to the misleading tendency of a good deal 

243 



GEORGE ELIOT AND SOLOMON MAIMON 

In Maimon's " wonderful piece of autobiography," 
as she terms the work in " Daniel Deronda." She 
returns to the attack on p. 36 of her copy, where 
she has jotted, " See infra, p. 150 et seq. for a bet- 
ter-informed view of Talmudic study." 

How carefully George Eliot read ! The pagina- 
tion of 207 is printed wrongly as 160; she corrects 
it! She corrects Kimesi into " Kimchi " on p. 48, 
Rahasse into " R. Ashe " on p. 163. On p. 59 
she writes, " According to the Talmud no one is 
eternally damned." Perhaps her statement needs 
some slight qualification. Again (p. 62), " RashI, 
i. e. Rabbi Shelomoh ben Isaak, whom Buxtorf 
mistakenly called Jarchi." It was really to Ray- 
mund Martini that this error goes back. But 
George Eliot could not know it. On p. 140, Mai- 
mon begins, " Accordingly, I sought to explain all 
this In the following way," to which George Eliot 
appends the note, " But this is simply what the 
Cabbala teaches^ — not his own Ingenious explana- 
tion." 

It Is interesting to find George Eliot occasionally 
defending Judaism against Maimon. On p. 165 
he talks of the " abuse of Rabbinism," In that the 
Rabbis tacked on new laws to old texts. '* Its ori- 
gin," says George Eliot's pencilled jotting, " was 

244 



GEORGE ELIOT AND SOLOMON MAIMON 

the need for freedom to modify laws " — a fine 
remark. On p. 173, where Maimon again talks 
of the Rabbinical method of evolving all sorts of 
moral truths by the oddest exegesis, she writes, 
" The method has been constantly pursued in va- 
rious forms by Christian Teachers." On p. 186 
Maimon makes merry at the annulment of vows 
previous to the Day of Atonement. George Eliot 
writes, " These are religious vows — not engage- 
ments between man and man." 

Furthermore, she makes some translations of 
the titles of Hebrew books cited, and enters a cor- 
rection of an apparently erroneous statement of. 
fact on p. 215. There Maimon writes as though 
the Zohar had been promulgated after Sabbatai 
Zebi. George Eliot notes: *' Sabbatai Zebl lived 
long after the production of the Zohar. He was 
a contemporary of Spinoza. Moses de Leon be- 
longed to the fourteenth century." This remark 
shows that George Eliot knew Graetz's History, 
for it Is he who brought the names of Spinoza and 
Sabbatai Zebl together In two chapter headings In 
his work. Besides, Graetz's History was certainly 
in George Eliot's library; it was among the Lewes 
books now at Dr. Williams's. Again, on p. 265, 
Maimon speaks of the Jewish fast that falls in 

245 



GEORGE ELIOT AND SOLOMON MAIMON 

August. George Eliot jots on the margin, " July? 
Fast of Ninth Ab/' 

Throughout passages are pencilled, and at the 
end she gives an index to the parts that seem to 
have interested her particularly. This is her list: 

Talmudic quotations, 36. 

Polish Doctor, 49. 

The Talmudist, 60. 

Prince R. and the Barber, 110. 

Talmudic Method, 174. 

Polish Jews chiefly Gelehrte, 211. 

Zohar, 215. 

Rabbinical Morality, 176. 

New Chasidim, 207. 

Elias aus Wilna, 242. 

Angels (?), 82. 

Tamuz, IL, 135. 

It IS a pleasure, indeed, to find a fresh confirma- 
tion, that George Eliot's favorable impression of 
Judaism was based on a very adequate acquain- 
tance with its history. Sir Walter Scott's knowl- 
edge of it was, one cannot but feel, far less inti- 
mate than George Eliot's, but his poetic Insight 
kept him marvellously straight in his appreciation 
of Jewish life and character. 

[Notes, pp. 3 10-3 11] 



246 



II 

How Milton Pronounced Hebrew 

English politics In the seventeenth and eigh- 
teenth centuries maintained a closer association 
with literature than is conceivable In the present 
age. England has just witnessed a contest on 
fundamental issues between the two Houses of 
Parliament. This recalls, by contrast rather than 
by similarity, another conflict that divided the 
Lords from the Commons in and about the year 
1645. The question at Issue then was the respec- 
tive literary merits of two metrical translations 
of the Psalms. 

Francis Rous was a Provost of Eton, a member 
of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, and rep- 
resentative of Truro in the Long Parliament. 
This *' old illiterate Jew," as Wood abusively 
termed him, had made a verse translation of the 
Psalms, which the House of Commons cordially 
recommended. The House of Lords, on the other 
hand, preferred Barton's translation, and many 
other contemporaneous attempts were made to 

247 



HOW MILTON PRONOUNCED HEBREW 

meet the growing demand for a good metrical 
rendering — a demand which, by the way, has re- 
mained but imperfectly filled to the present time. 
Would that some Jewish poet might arise to give 
us the long-desired version for use, at all events, in 
our private devotions! In April, 1648, Milton 
tried his hand at a rendering of nine Psalms (Ixxx.- 
Ixxxviii.), and it is from this work that we can see 
how Milton pronounced Hebrew. Strange to say, 
Milton's attempt, except in the case of the eighty- 
fourth Psalm, has scanty poetical merit, and, as a 
literal translation, it is not altogether successful. 
He prides himself on the fact that his verses are 
such that " all, but what is in a different character, 
are the very words of the Text, translated from 
the original." The inserted words in italics are, 
nevertheless, almost as numerous as the roman 
type that represents the original Hebrew. Such 
conventional mistakes as Rous's cheruhims are, 
however, conspicuously absent from Milton's 
more scholarly work. Milton writes cherubs. 

Now, in the margin of Psalms Ixxx., Ixxxi., 
Ixxxii., and Ixxxiii., Milton inserts a transliteration 
of some of the words of the original Hebrew text. 
The first point that strikes one is the extraordinary 
accuracy of the transliteration. One word appears 

248 



HOW MILTON PRONOUNCED HEBREW 

as Jimmottif thus showing that Milton appreciated 
the force of the dagesh. Again, Shiphtu-dal, hag- 
nadath-el show that Milton observed the presence 
of the Makkef. Actual mistakes are very rare, 
and, as Dr. Davidson has suggested, they may be 
due to misprints. This certainly accounts for 
Tishphetu instead of Tishpetu (Ixxxii. 2), but 
when we find Be Sether appearing as two words 
Instead of one, the capital S is rather against this 
explanation, while Shifta (in the last verse of 
Psalm Ixxxii.) looks like a misreading. 

It is curious to see that Milton adopted the nasal 
Intonation of the Ayin, And he adopted it in the 
least defensible form. He invariably writes gn 
for the Hebrew Ayin, Now ng is bad enough, but 
gn seems a worse barbarism. Milton read the 
vowels, as might have been expected from one liv- 
ing after Reuchlin, who introduced the Italian pro- 
nunciation to Christian students in Europe, in the 
** Portuguese " manner, even to the point of mak- 
ing little, if any, distinction between the Zere and 
the Sheva, As to the consonants, he read Tav as 
th, Teth as t, Qof as k, and Fav and Beth equally 
as V, In this latter point he followed the " Ger- 
man " usage. The letter Cheth Milton read as 
ch, but Kaf he read as c, sounded hard proba- 

249 



HOW MILTON PRONOUNCED HEBREW 

bly, as so many English readers of Hebrew do at 
the present day. I have even noted among Jewish 
boys an amusing affectation of inability to pro- 
nounce the Kaf in any other way. The some- 
what inaccurate but unavoidable ts for Zadde was 
already estabhshed in Milton's time, while the 
letter Yod appears regularly as j, which Milton 
must have sounded as y. On the whole, it is quite 
clear that Milton read his Hebrew with minute 
precision. To see how just this verdict Is, let any- 
one compare Milton's exactness with the erratic 
and slovenly transliterations In Edmund Chld- 
mead's English edition of Leon Modena's Riti 
Ehraici, which was published only two years later 
than Milton's paraphrase of the Psalms. 

The result, then, of an examination of the 
twenty-six words thus transliterated, is to deepen 
the conviction that the great Puritan poet, who de- 
rived so much inspiration from the Old Testament, 
drew at least some of it from the pure well of 
Hebrew undefiled. 

[Notes, p. 311] 



250 



Ill 

The Cambridge Platonists 

As a "Concluding Part" to "The Myths of 
Plato," Professor J. A. Stewart wrote a chapter 
on the Cambridge Platonists of the seventeenth 
century, his object being to show that the thought 
of Plato " has been, and still Is, an Important in- 
fluence In modern philosophy." 

It was a not unnatural reaction that diverted 
the scholars of the Renaissance from Aristotle to 
Plato. The medieval Church had been Aristote- 
lian, and " antagonism to the Roman Church had, 
doubtless, much to do with the Platonic revival, 
which spread from Italy to Cambridge." But, 
curiously enough, the Plato whom Cambridge 
served was not Plato the Athenian dialectician, but 
Plato the poet and allegorist. It was, in fact, 
Phllo, the Jew, rather than Plato, the Greek, that 
inspired them. 

" Phllo never thought of doubting that Plato- 
nlsm and the Jewish Scriptures had real affinity to 
each other, and hardly perhaps asked himself how 

251 



THE CAMBRIDGE PLATONISTS 

the affinity was to be accounted for." Philo, how- 
ever, would have had no difficulty in accounting 
for it; already in his day the quaint theory was 
prevalent that Athens had borrowed its wisdom 
from Jerusalem. The Cambridge Platonists went 
with Philo in declaring Plato to be " the Attic 
Moses." Henry More (1662) maintained 
strongly Plato's indebtedness to Moses; even 
Pythagoras was so indebted, or, rather, ** it was a 
common fame [report] that Pythagoras was a 
disciple of the Prophet Ezekiel." The Cambridge 
Platonists were anxious, not only to show this de- 
pendence of Greek upon Hebraic thought, but they 
went on to argue that Moses taught, in allegory, 
the natural philosophy of Descartes. More calls 
Platonism the soul, and Cartesianism the body, of 
his own philosophy, which he applies to the expla- 
nation of the Law of Moses. " This philosophy 
is the old Jewish-Pythagorean Cabbala, which 
teaches the motion of the Earth and Pre-existence 
of the Soul." But it is awkward that Moses does 
not teach the motion of the earth. More is at no 
loss; he boldly argues that, though "the motion 
of the earth has been lost and appears not in the 
remains of the Jewish Cabbala, this can be no 
argument against its once having been a part 

252 



THE CAMBRIDGE PLATONISTS 

thereof." He holds It as " exceedingly probable " 
that the Roman Emperor " Numa was both de- 
scended from the Jews and imbued with the Jew- 
ish religion and learning." 

Thus the Cambridge Platonlsts of the seven- 
teenth century are a very remarkable example of 
the recurrent Influence exercised on non-Jews by 
certain forms of Judaism that had but slight direct 
effect on the Jews themselves. Indirectly, the 
Hellenic side of Jewish culture left Its mark, es- 
pecially In the Cabbala. It would be well worth 
the while of a Jewish theologian to make a close 
study of the seventeenth century alumni of Cam- 
bridge, who were among the most fascinating de- 
votees of ancient Jewish wisdom. Henry More 
was particularly attractive, " the most Interesting 
and the most unreadable of the whole band." 
When he was a young boy, his uncle had to 
threaten a flogging to cure him of precocious " for- 
wardness In philosophizing concerning the mys- 
teries of necessity and freewill." In 1631 he en- 
tered Christ's College, Cambridge, " about the 
time when John Milton was leaving It," and he 
may almost be said to have spent the rest of his 
life within the walls of the college, '' except when 
he went to stay with his * heroine pupil,' Anne, 

253 



THE CAMBRIDGE PLATONISTS 

Viscountess Conway, at her country seat of Rag- 
ley in Warwickshire, where his pleasure was to 
wander among the woods and glades." He abso- 
lutely refused all preferment, and when " he was 
once persuaded to make a journey to Whitehall, to 
kiss His Majesty's hands, but heard by the way 
that this would be the prelude to a bishopric, he at 
once turned back." Yet More was no recluse. 
" He had many pupils at Christ's; he loved music, 
and used to play on the theorbo; he enjoyed a 
game at bowls, and still more a conversation with 
intimate friends, who listened to him as to an 
oracle ; and he was so kind to the poor that it was 
said his very chamber-door was a hospital for the 
needy." But enough has been quoted from Over- 
ton's biography to whet curiosity about this Cam- 
bridge sage and saint. More well illustrates what 
was said above (pp. 1 14-1 16) — the man of letters 
is truest to his calling when he has at the same 
time an open ear to the call of humanity. 
[Notes, p. 313] 



S54 



IV 

The Anglo-Jewish Yiddish Literary Society 

The founder and moving spirit of this unique 
little Society is Miss Helena Frank, whose sym- 
pathy with Yiddish literature has been shown in 
several ways. Her article in the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury (" The Land of Jargon," October, 1904) 
was as forcible as it was dainty. Her rendering of 
the stories of Perez, too, is more than a literary 
feat. Her knowledge of Yiddish Is not merely 
intellectual; though not herself a Jewess, she evi- 
dently enters Into the heart of the people who ex- 
press their lives and aspirations In Yiddish terms. 
Young as she Is, Miss Frank is, indeed, a remark- 
able linguist; Hebrew and Russian are among her 
accomplishments. But it Is a wonderful fact that 
she has set herself to acquire these other languages 
only to help her to understand Yiddish, which 
latter she knows through and through. 

Miss Frank not long ago founded a Society 
called by the title that heads this note. The So- 
ciety did not interest Itself directly In the preserva- 

255 



THE ANGLO-JEWISH YIDDISH LITERARY SOCIETY 

tion of Yiddish as a spoken language. It was 
rather the somewhat grotesque fear that the role 
of Yiddish as a living language may cease that ap- 
pealed to Miss Frank. The idea was to collect a 
Yiddish library, encourage the translation of Yid- 
dish books into English, and provide a sufficient 
supply of Yiddish books and papers for the pa- 
tients in the London and other Hospitals who are 
unable to read any other language. The weekly 
Yiddishe Gaze t ten (New York) was sent regu- 
larly to the London Hospital, where it has been 
very welcome. 

In the Society's first report, which I was per- 
mitted to see, Miss Frank explained why an 
American Yiddish paper was the first choice. In 
the first place, it was a good paper, with an estab- 
lished reputation, and at once conservative and 
free from prejudice. America is, moreover, " in- 
tensely interesting to the Polish Yid, For him it 
is the free country par excellence. Besides, he is 
sure to have a son, uncle, or brother there — or to 
be going there himself. ' Vin shterben in vin 
Amerika kan sich keener nisht araus drehn ! ' 
(' From dying and from going to America, there 
is no escape!')" Miss Frank has a keen sense of 
humor. How could she love Yiddish were it not 

256 



THE ANGLO-JEWISH YIDDISH LITERARY SOCIETY 

SO? She cites some of the Yiddishe Gazetten's 
answers to correspondents. This is funny: " The 
woman has the right to take her clothes and orna- 
ments away with her when she leaves her husband. 
But It Is a question If she ought to leave him." 
Then we have the following from an article by 
Dr. Goidorof. He compares the Yiddish lan- 
guage to persons whose passports are not In 
order — the one has no grammar, the others have 
no land. 

And both the Jewish language and the Jewish nation hide 
their faulty passports in their wallets, and disappear from the 
register of nations and languages — no land, no grammar! 

"A pretty conclusion the savants have come to!" (began the 
Jewish nation). "You are nothing but a collection of words, 
and I am nothing but a collection of people, and there's an end 
to both of us ! " 

" And Jargon, besides, they said — to which of us did they 
refer? To me or to you?" (asks the Jewish language, the word 
jargon being unknown to It). 

"To you! " (answers the Jewish nation). 

"No, to you! " (protests the Jewish language). 

"Well, then, to both of us! " (allows the Jewish nation). "It 
seems we are both a kind of Jargon. Mercy on us, what shall 
we do without a grammar and without a land ? " 

" Unless the Zionists purchase a grammar of the Sultan 1 " 
(romances the Jewish language). 

"Or at all events a land! " (sighs the Jewish nation). 
17 257 



THE ANGLO-JEWISH YIDDISH LITERARY SOCIETY 

"You think that the easier of the two?" (asks the Jewish 
language, wittily). 

And at the same moment they look at one another and laugh 
loudly and merrily. 

This is genuine Heinesque humor. 
[Notes, p. 312] 



/ 



The Mystics and Saints of India 

A book by Professor J. C. Oman, publlsKed not 
long ago, contains a clear and judicially sympa- 
thetic account of Hinduism. The sordid side of 
Indian asceticism receives due attention; the ex- 
cesses of self-mortification, painful posturings, and 
equally painful impostures are by no means 
slurred over by the writer. And yet the essential 
origin of these ascetic practices is perceived by 
Professor Oman to be a pure philosophy and a not 
ignoble idealism. And if Professor Oman's anal- 
ysis be true, one understands how it is that, though 
there have always been Jewish ascetics, at times 
of considerable numbers and devotion, yet asceti- 
cism, as such, has no recognized place in Judaism. 
Jewish moralists, especially, though not exclu- 
sively, those of the mystical or Cabbalistic schools, 
pronounce powerfully enough against over-indul- 
gence in all sensuous pleasures ; they inculcate mod- 
eration and abstinence, and, in some cases, where 
the pressure of desire is very strong, prescribe 

259 



THE MYSTICS AND SAINTS OF INDIA 

painful austerities, which may be paralleled by 
what Professor Oman tells us of the Sadhus and 
Yogis of India. But let us first listen to Professor 
Oman's analysis (p. i6) : 

" Without any pretence of an exhaustive analysis of the vari- 
ous and complex motives which underlie religious asceticism, I 
may, before concluding this chapter, draw attention to what 
seem to me the more general reasons which prompt men to 
ascetic practices: (i) A desire, which is intensified by all per- 
sonal or national troubles, to propitiate the Unseen Powers. 
(2) A longing on the part of the intensely religious to follow in 
the footsteps of their Master, almost invariably an ascetic. (3) 
A wish to work out one's own future salvation, or emancipation, 
by conquering the evil inherent in human nature, i. e. the flesh. 

(4) A yearning to prepare oneself by purification of mind and 
body for entering into present communion with the Divine Being. 

(5) Despair arising from disillusionment and from defeat in the 
battle of life. And lastly, mere vanity, stimulated by the admira- 
tion which the multitude bestow on the ascetic." 

With regard to his second reason, we find noth- 
ing of the kind in Judaism subsequent to the Es- 
senes, until we reach the Cabbalistic heroes of the 
Middle Ages. The third and the fourth have, on 
the other hand, had power generally in Jewish 
conduct. The fifth has had its influence, but only 
temporarily and temperately. Ascetic practices, 
based on national and religious calamity, have, for 

260 



THE MYSTICS AND SAINTS OF INDIA 

the most part, been prescribed only for certain 
dates In the calendar, but it must be confessed that 
an excessive addiction to fasting prevails among 
many Jews. But it is when we consider the first 
of Professor Oman's reasons for ascetic practices 
that we perceive how entirely the genius of Juda- 
ism is foreign to Hindu and most other forms of 
asceticism. To reach communion with God, the 
Jew goes along the road of happiness, not of aus- 
terity. He serves with joy, not with sadness. On 
this subject the reader may refer with great profit 
to the remarks made by the Reverend Morris 
Joseph, in " Judaism as Creed and Life," p. 247, 
onwards, and again the whole of chapter Iv. of 
book iii. (p. 364). Self-development, not self- 
mortification. Is the true principle; mean's lower 
nature Is not to be crushed by torture, but to be 
elevated by moderation, so as to bear its part with 
man's higher nature In the service of God. 

What leads some Jewish moralists to eulogize 
asceticism is that there is always a danger of the 
happiness theory leading to" a materialistic view of 
life. This is what Mr. Joseph says, and says well, 
on the subject (p. 371) : 

" And, therefore, though Judaism does not approve of the 
ascetic temper, it is far from encouraging the materialist's view 

261 



THE MYSTICS AND SAINTS OF INDIA 

of life. It has no place for monks or hermits, who think they 
can serve God best by renouncing the world; but, on the other 
hand, it sternly rebukes the worldllness that knows no ideal but 
sordid pleasures, no God but Self. It commends to us the golden 
mean — the safe line of conduct that lies midway between the 
rejection of earthly joys and the worship of them. If asceticism 
too often spurns the commonplace duties of life, excessive self- 
indulgence unfits us for them. In each case we lose some of 
our moral efficiency. But in the latter case there is added an 
inevitable degradation. The man who mortifies his body for 
his soul's sake has at least his motive to plead for him. But 
the sensualist has no such justification. He deliberately chooses 
the evil and rejects the good. Forfeiting his character as a son 
of God, he yields himself a slave to unworthy passions. 

" It is the same with the worldly man, who lives only for 
sordid ends, such as wealth and the pleasures it buys. He, too, 
utterly misses his vocation. His pursuit of riches may be moral 
in itself; he may be a perfectly honest man. But his life Is un- 
moral all the same, for it aims at nothing higher than itself." 

Thus Professor Oman's fascinating book gives 
occasion for thought to many whose religion is 
far removed from Hinduism. But there is in 
particular one feature of Hindu asceticism that 
calls for attention. This is the Hindu doctrine of 
Karma, or good works, which will be familiar to 
readers of Rudyard Kipling's " Kim." Upon a 
man's actions (Karma is the Sanskrit for action) 
in this life depends the condition in which his soul 
will be reincarnated. 

262 



THE MYSTICS AND SAINTS OF INDIA 

" In a word, the present state is the result of past actions, and 
the future depends upon the present. Now, the ultimate hope of 
the Hindu should be so to live that his soul may be eventually 
freed from the necessity of being reincarnated, and may, in the 
end, be reunited to the Infinite Spirit from which it sprang. 
As, however, that goal is very remote, the Hindu not uncom- 
monly limits his desire and his efforts to the attainment of a 
* good time ' now, and in his next appearance upon this earthly 
stage" (p. io8). 

We need not go fully Into this doctrine, which, as 
the writer says elsewhere (p. 172), '* certainly 
makes for morality," but we may rather attend to 
that aspect of It which Is shown In the Hindu de- 
sire to accumulate " merits." The performance 
of penances gives the self-torturer certain spiritual 
powers. Professor Oman quotes this passage from 
Sir Monier Williams's " Indian Epic Poetry " 
(note to p. 4) : 

" According to Hindu theory, the performance of penances was 
like making deposits in the bank of Heaven. By degrees an enor- 
mous credit was accumulated, which enabled the depositor to 
draw on the amount of his savings, without fear of his drafts 
being refused payment. The power gained in this way by weak 
mortals was so enormous that gods, as well as men, were equally 
at the mercy of these all but omnipotent ascetics, and it is re- 
markable that even the gods are described as engaging in pen- 
ances and austerities, in order, it may be presumed, not to be 
undone by human beings." 

263 



THE MYSTICS AND SAINTS OF INDIA 

Now, if for penance we substitute Mitzvoth, 
we find in this passage almost the caricature of the 
Jewish theory that meets us in the writings of Ger- 
man theologians. These ill-equipped critics of 
Judaism put it forward seriously that the Jew per- 
forms Mitzvoth in order to accumulate merit 
(Zechuth), and some of them even go so far as to 
assert that the Jew thinks of his Zechuth as irre- 
sistible. But when the matter is put frankly and 
squarely, as Professor Monier Williams puts it, 
not even the Germans could have the effrontery to 
assert that Judaism teaches or tolerates any such 
doctrine. Whatever man does, he has no merit 
towards God: that is Jewish teaching. Yet con- 
duct counts, and somehow the good man and the 
bad man are not in the same case. Judaism may 
be inconsistent, but it is certainly not base in its 
teaching as to conduct and retribution. " Be not 
as servants who minister in the hope of receiving 
reward " — this is not the highest level of Jewish 
doctrine, it is the average level. Lately I have 
been reading a good deal of mystical Jewish litera- 
ture, and I have been struck by the repeated use 
made of the famous Rabbinical saying of Antigo- 
nos of Socho just cited. One wonders whether, 
after all, justice is done to the Hindus. One sees 

264 



THE MYSTICS AND SAINTS OF INDIA 

how easily Jewish teaching can be distorted into a 
doctrine of calculated Zechuth. Are the Hindus 
being misjudged equally? Certainly, in some cases 
this must be so, for Professor Oman, with his re- 
markably sympathetic insight, records experiences 
such as this more than once (p. 147). He is de- 
scribing one of the Jain ascetics, and remarks : 

" His personal appearance gave the Impression of great suffer- 
ing, and his attendants all had the same appearance, contrasting 
very much indeed with the ordinary Sadhus of other sects. And 
wherefore this austere rejection of the world's goods, wherefore 
all this self-inflicted misery? Is it to attain a glorious Heaven 
hereafter, a blessed existence after death? No! It is, as the old 
monk explained to me, only to escape rebirth — for the Jain 
believes in the transmigration of souls — and to attain rest." 

Other ascetics gave similar explanations. Thus 
(p. 100) : 

"The Christian missionary entered into conversation with the 
Hermit (a BairagI from the Upper Provinces), and learned from 
him that he had adopted a life of abstraction and isolation from 
the world, neither to expiate any sin, nor to secure any reward. 
He averred that he had no desires and no hopes, but that, being 
removed from the agitations of the worldly life, he was full of 
tranquil joy." 

[Notes, pp. 312-313] 



265 



VI 

Lost Purim Joys 

It Is scarcely accurate to assert, as is sometimes 
done, that the most characteristic of the Purim 
pranks of the past were children of the Ghetto, 
and came to a natural end when the Ghetto walls 
fell. In point of fact, most of these joys origi- 
nated before the era of the Ghetto, and others were 
introduced for the first time when Ghetto life was 
about to fade away into history. 

Probably the oldest of Purim pranks was the 
bonfire and the burning of an effigy. Now, so far 
from being a Ghetto custom, it did not even ema- 
nate from Europe, the continent of Ghettos; it 
belongs to Babylonia and Persia. This Is what 
was done, according to an old Geonic account re- 
covered by Professor L. Ginzberg: 

" It is customary in Babylonia and Elam for boys to make an 
effigy resembling Haman; this they suspend on their roofs, four 
or five days before Purim. On Purim day they erect a bonfire, 
and cast the effigy into its midst, while the boys stand round about 
it, jesting and singing. And they have a ring suspended in the 

266 



LOST PURIM JOYS 

midst of the fire, which (ring) they hold and wave from one 
side of the fire to the other." 

Bonfires, It may be thought, need no recondite 
explanation; light goes with a light heart, and 
boys always love a blaze. Dr. J. G. Frazer, In his 
'* Golden Bough," has endeavored, nevertheless, 
to bring the Purim bonfire Into relation with 
primitive spring-tide and midsummer conflagra- 
tions, which survived Into modern carnivals, but 
did not originate with them. Such bonfires be- 
longed to what has been called sympathetic or 
homeopathic magic; by raising an artificial heat, 
you ensured a plentiful dose of the natural heat of 
the sun. So, too, the burning of an effigy was not, 
in the first Instance, a malicious or unfriendly act. 
A tree-spirit, or a figure representing the spirit of 
vegetation, was consumed In fire, but the spirit was 
regarded as beneficent, not hostile, and by burning 
a friendly deity the succor of the sun was gained. 
Dr. Frazer cites some evidence for the early preva- 
lence of the PurIm bonfire ; he argues strongly and 
persuasively In favor of the Identification of PurIm 
with the Babylonian feast of the Sacaea, a wild, 
extravagant bacchanalian revel, which, In the old 
Asiatic world, much resembled the Saturnalia of a 
later Italy. The theory Is plausible, though it is not 

267 



LOST PURIM JOYS 

quite proven by Dr. Frazer, but It seems to me that 
whatever be the case with Purim generally, there 
is one hitherto overlooked feature of the Purim 
bonfire that does clearly connect it with the other 
primitive conflagrations of which mention was 
made above. 

This overlooked feature is the '' ring." No ex- 
planation is given by the Gaon as to its purpose in 
the tenth century, and it can hardly have been used 
to hold the effigy. Now, in many of the primitive 
bonfires, the fire was produced by aid of a revolv- 
ing wheel. This wheel typifies the sun. Waving 
the " ring " in the Purim bonfires has obviously 
the same significance, and this apparently inexpli- 
cable feature does, I think, serve to link the ancient 
Purim prank with a long series of old-world cus- 
tomiS, which, it need hardly be said, have nothing 
whatever to do with the Ghetto. 

Then, again, the most famous of Purim paro- 
dies preceded the Ghetto period. The official 
Ghetto begins with the opening of the sixteenth 
century, whereas the best parodies belong to a 
much earlier date, the fourteenth century. Such 
parodies, in which sacred things are the subject of 
harmless jest, are purely medieval in spirit, as well 
as in date. Exaggerated praises of wine were a 

268 



LOST PURIM JOYS 

foil to the sobriety of the Jew, the fun consisting 
In this conscious exaggeration. The medieval 
Jew, be It remembered, drew no severe line be- 
tween sacred and profane. All life was to him 
equally holy, equally secular. So It Is not strange 
that we find Included In sacred Hebrew hymnolo- 
gles wine-songs for Purim and Chanukah and other 
Synagogue feasts, and these songs are at least as 
old as the early part of the twelfth century. For 
PurIm, many Synagogue liturgies contain serious 
additions for each of the eighteen benedictions of 
the Amidah prayer, and equally serious para- 
phrases of Esther, some of them In Aramaic, 
abound among the Genlzah fragments In Cam- 
bridge. Besides these, however, are many harm- 
lessly humorous jingles and rhymes which were 
sung In the synagogue, admittedly for the amuse- 
ment of the children, and for the child-hearts of 
adult growth. For them, too, the Midrash had 
played round Haman, reviling him, poking fun at 
him, covering him with ridicule rather than exe- 
cration. It Is true that the earliest ritual refer- 
ence to the wearing of masks on PurIm dates from 
the year 1508, just within the Ghetto period. 
But this omission of earlier reference Is surely an 
accident. In the Babylonian Sacaea, cited above, 

269 



LOST PURIM JOYS 

a feature of the revel was that men and women 
disguised themselves, a slave dressed up as king, 
while servants personated masters, and vice versa. 
All these elements of carnival exhilaration are 
much earlier than the Middle Ages. Ghetto days, 
however, originated, perhaps, the stamping of 
feet, clapping of hands, clashing of mallets, and 
smashing of earthenware pots, to punctuate cer- 
tain passages of the Esther story and of the subse- 
quent benediction. 

My strongest point concerns what, beyond all 
other delights, has been regarded as the charac- 
teristic amusement of the festival, viz. the Purim 
play. We not only possess absolutely no evidence 
that Purim plays were performed in the Ghettos 
till the beginning of the eighteenth century, when 
the end of the Ghettos was almost within sight, 
but the extant references imply that they were then 
a novelty. Plays on the subject of Esther were 
very common in medieval Europe during earlier 
centuries, but these plays were written by Chris- 
tians, not by Jews, and were performed by monks, 
not by Rabbis, Strange as it may seem, it is none 
the less the fact that the Purim play belongs to 
the most recent of the Purim amusements, and 
that its life has been short and, on the whole, in- 
glorious. 

270 



LOST PURIM JOYS 

Thus, without pressing the contention too 
closely, Purim festivities do not deserve to be 
tarred with the Ghetto brush. Is it, then, denied 
that Purim was more mirthfully observed in 
Ghetto days than it is at the present day? By no 
means. It is unquestionable that Purim used to 
be a merrier anniversary than it is now. The ex- 
planation is simple. In part, the change has arisen 
through a laudable disinclination from pranks that 
may be misconstrued as tokens of vindictiveness 
against an ancient foe or his modern reincarna- 
tions. As a second cause may be assigned the 
growing and regrettable propensity of Jews to 
draw a rigid line of separation between life and 
religion, and wherever this occurs, religious feasts 
tend towards a solemnity that cannot, and dare 
not, relax into amusement. This tendency is eat- 
ing at the very heart of Jewish life, and ought to 
be resisted by all who truly understand the genius 
of Judaism. 

But the psychology of the change goes even 
deeper. The Jew is emotional, but he detests 
making a display of his feelings to mere onlookers. 
The Wailing Wall scenes at Jerusalem are not a 
real exception — the facts are " Cooked," to meet 
the demands of clamant tourists. The Jew's sensl- 

271 



LOST PURIM JOYS 

tiveness is the correlative of his emotionalism. 
While all present are joining in the game, each 
Jew will play with full abandonment to the humor 
of the moment. But as soon as some play the 
part of spectators, the Jew feels his limbs grow- 
ing too stiff for dancing, his voice too hushed 
for song. All must participate, or all must leave 
off. Thus, a crowd of Italians or Southern French 
may play at carnival to-day to amuse sight-seers in 
the Riviera, but Jews have never consented, have 
never been able, to sport that others might stand 
by and laugh at, and not with, the sportsmen. In 
short, Purim has lost its character, because Jews 
have lost their character, their disposition for in- 
nocent, unanimous joyousness. We are no longer 
so closely united in interests or in local abodes that 
we could, on the one hand, enjoy ourselves as one 
man, and, on the other, play merry pranks, with- 
out incurring the criticism of indifferent, cold- 
eyed observers. Criticism has attacked the au- 
thenticity of the Esther story, and proposed Marduk 
for Mordecai, and Istar for Esther. But criticism 
of another kind has worked far more havoc, for its 
'' superior " airs have killed the Purim joy. Per- 
haps it is not quite dead after all. 
[Notes, pp. 313-314] 
272 



VII 

Jews and Letters 

The jubilee of the Introduction of the Penny 
Post Into England was not reached till 1890. It 
Is difficult to realize the state of affairs before this 
reform became part of our everyday life. That 
less than three-quarters of a century ago the scat- 
tered members of English families were, In a mul- 
titude of cases, practically dead to one another, 
may Incline one to exaggerate the Insignificance of 
the means of communication In times yet more 
remote. Certainly, In ancient Judea there were 
fewer needs than in the modern world. Necessity 
produces Invention, and as the Jew of remote times 
rarely felt a strong necessity to correspond with 
his brethren In his own or other countries. It natu- 
rally followed that the means of communication 
were equally extempore In character. It may be 
of Interest to put together some desultory jottings 
on this Important topic. 

The way to Judea lies through Rome. If we 
wish Information whether the Jews knew any- 
18 273 



JEWS AND LETTERS 

thing of a regular post, we must first Inquire 
whether the Romans possessed that Institution. 
According to Gibbon, this was the case. Excellent 
roads made their appearance wherever the Ro- 
mans settled; and " the advantage of receiving the 
earliest Intelligence and of conveying their orders 
with celerity, induced the Emperors to establish 
throughout their extensive dominions the regular 
institution of posts. Houses were everywhere 
erected at the distance only of Rvc or six miles; 
each of them was constantly provided with forty 
horses, and by the help of these relays It was easy 
to travel a hundred miles a day along the Roman 
roads. The use of the posts was allowed to those 
who claimed It by an Imperial mandate; but, 
though originally Intended for the public service, 
it was sometimes Indulged to the business or con- 
veniency of private citizens." This statement of 
Gibbon (towards the end of chapter 11) applies 
chiefly, then, to oflicial despatches; for we know 
from other sources that the Romans had no public 
post as we understand the term, but used special 
messengers (tabellarius) to convey private letters. 
Exactly the same facts meet us with reference 
to the Jews In the earlier Talmudic times. There 
were special Jewish letter-carriers, who carried the 

274 



JEWS AND LETTERS 

documents In a pocket made for the purpose, and 
In several towns in Palestine there was a kind of 
regular postal arrangement, though many places 
were devoid of the Institution. It Is Impossible to 
suppose that these postal conveniences refer only 
to official documents; for the MIshnah {Sabbath, 
X, 4) IS evidently speaking of Jewish postmen, 
who, at that time, would hardly have been em- 
ployed to carry the despatches of the government. 
The Jewish, name for this post was Be-Davvar, 
and apparently was a permanent and regular Insti- 
tution. From a remark of Rabbi Jehudah {Rosh 
ha-Shanah, 9b), " like a postman who goes about 
ever3rwhere and carries merchandise to the whole 
province," It would seem that the Jews had estab- 
lished a parcels-post; but unfortunately we have 
no precise Information as to how these posts were 
managed. 

Gibbon's account of the Roman post recalls an- 
other Jewish Institution, which may have been 
somehow connected with the Be-Davvar, The offi- 
cial custodian of the goat that was sent Into the 
wilderness on the Day of Atonement was allowed, 
if he should feel the necessity — a necessity which, 
according to tradition, never arose — to partake of 
food even on the fast-day. For this purpose huts 

275 



JEWS AND LETTERS 

were erected along the route, and men provided 
with food were stationed at each of these huts to 
meet the messenger and conduct him some dis- 
tance on his way. 

That the postal system cannot have been very 
much developed, is clear from the means adopted 
to announce the New Moon in various localities. 
This official announcement certainly necessitated a 
complete system of communication. At first, we 
are told (Rosh ha-Shanah, ii, 2), fires were lighted 
on the tops of the mountains; but the Samaritans 
seem to have ignited the beacons at the wrong 
time, so as to deceive the Jews. It was, therefore, 
decided to communicate the news by messenger. 
The mountain-fires were prepared as follows: 
Long staves of cedar-wood, canes, and branches 
of the oHve-tree were tied up with coarse threads 
or flax; these were lighted as torches, and men 
on the hills waved the brands to and fro, up- 
ward and downward, until the signal was repeated 
on the next hill, and so forth. When messen- 
gers were substituted for these fire signals, it does 
not appear that they carried letters; they brought 
verbal messages, which they seem to have shouted 
out without necessarily dismounting from the 
animals they rode. Messages were not sent every 

270 



JEWS AND LETTERS 

month, but only six times a year; and a curious 
light Is thrown on the means of communica- 
tion of the time, by the legal decision that anyone 
was to be believed on the subject, and that the 
word of a passing merchant who said that " he 
had heard the New Moon proclaimed," was to be 
accepted unhesitatingly. Nowadays, busy men are 
sometimes put out by postal vagaries, but they 
hardly suffer to the extent of having to fast two 
days. This calamity is recorded, however, in the 
Jerusalem Talmud, as having, on a certain occa- 
sion, resulted from the delay in the arrival of the 
messengers announcing the New Moon. 

Besides the proclamation of the New Moon, 
other official documents must have been despatched 
regularly. " Bills of divorce," for instance, 
needed special messengers; the whole question of 
the legal position of messengers is very Intimately 
bound up with that of conveying divorces. This, 
however, seems to have been the function of pri- 
vate messengers, who were not In the strict sense 
letter-carriers at all. It may be well. In passing, 
to recall one or two other means of communica- 
tion mentioned In the Midrash. Thus we read 
how Joshua, with twelve thousand of his warriors, 
was Imprisoned, by means of witchcraft, within a 

277 



JEWS AND LETTERS 

sevenfold barrier of iron. He resolves to write 
for aid to the chief of the tribe of Reuben, bidding 
him to summon Phineas, who is to bring the 
" trumpets " with him. Joshua ties the message 
to the wings of a dove, or pigeon, and the bird 
carries the letter to the Israelites, who speedily 
arrive with Phineas and the trumpets, and, after 
routing the enemy, effect Joshua's rescue. A simi- 
lar idea may be found in the commentary of Kim- 
chi on Genesis. Noah, wishing for information, 
says Kimchi, sent forth a raven, but it brought 
back no message ; then he sent a dove, which has a 
natural capacity for bringing back replies, when 
it has been on the same way once or twice. Thus 
kings train these birds for the purpose of sending 
them great distances, with letters tied to their 
wings. So we read (Sabbath, 49) in the Talmud 
that '^ a dove's wings protect it," i. e. people pre- 
serve it, and do not slay it, because they train it to 
act as their messenger. Or, again, we find arrows 
used as a means of carrying letters, and we are not 
alluding to such signals as Jonathan gave to David. 
During the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans, the 
Emperor had men placed near the walls of Jerusa- 
lem, and they wrote the information they obtained 
on arrows, and fired them from the wall, with the 

278 



JEWS AND LETTERS 

connivance, probably, of the phllo-Roman party 
that existed within the doomed city. 

In earlier Bible times, there was, as the Tell-el- 
Amarna bricks show, an extensive official corre- 
spondence between Canaan and Egypt, but private 
letter-writing seems not to have been resorted to; 
messages were transmitted orally to the parties 
concerned. This fact is well illustrated by the 
story of Joseph. He may, of course, have delib- 
erately resolved not to communicate with his fam- 
ily, but if letter-writing had been usual, his broth- 
ers would naturally have asked him — a question 
that did not suggest itself to them — why he had 
never written to tell his father of his fortunes. 
When Saul desired to summon Israel, he sent, not 
a letter, but a mutilated yoke of oxen; the earliest 
letter mentioned in the Bible being that in which 
King David ordered Uriah to be placed in the fore- 
front of the army. Jezebel sends letters in Ahab's 
namie to Naboth, Jehu to Samaria. In all these 
cases letters were used for treacherous purposes, 
and they are all short. Probably the authors of 
these plots feared to betray their real intention 
orally, and so they committed their orders to writ- 
ing, expecting their correspondents to read be- 
tween the lines. It is not till the time of Isaiah 

279 



JEWS AND -L-ETiTEKS 

that the references to writing become frequent. In- 
tercourse between Palestine on the one hand and 
Babylon and Egypt on the other had then in- 
creased greatly, and the severance of the nation 
itself tended to make correspondence through 
writing more necessary. When we reach the age 
of Jeremiah, this fact makes itself even more 
strongly apparent. Letters are often mentioned by 
that prophet (xxix. 25, 29), and a professional 
class of Soferim, or scribes, make their appear- 
ance. Afterwards, of course, the Sofer became 
of much higher importance; he was not merely a 
professional writer, but a man learned in the Law, 
who spread the knowledge of it among the people. 
Later, again, these functions were separated, and 
the Sofer added to his other offices that of 
teacher of the young. Nowadays, he has regained 
his earlier and less important position, for the 
modern Sofer is simply a professional writer. 
In the time of Ezekiel (ix. 2) the Sofer went 
abroad with the implements of his trade, including 
the inkhorn, at his side. In the Talmud, the 
scribe is sometimes described by his Latin title 
lihellarius (Sabbath, iia). The Jews of Egypt, 
as may be seen from the Assouan Papyri, wrote 
home in cases of need in the time of Nehemiah; 

280 



JEWS AND LETTERS 

and in the same age we hear also of '* open letters,'* 
for Sanballat sends a missive of that description by 
his servant; and apparently it was by means of a 
similar letter that the festival of Purim was an- 
nounced to the Jews (Esther ix., where, unlike the 
other passages quoted, the exact words of the let- 
ter of Mordecai are not given) . The order to cele- 
brate Chanukah was published in the same way, 
and, indeed, the books of the Apocrypha contain 
many interesting letters, and in the pages of Jose- 
phus the Jews hold frequent intercourse in this way 
with many foreign countries. In the latter cases, 
when the respective kings corresponded, the letters 
were conveyed by special embassies. 

One might expect this epistolary activity to dis- 
play itself at an even more developed stage in the 
records of Rabbinical times. But this is by no 
means the case, for the Rabbinical references to 
letters in the beginning of the common era are few 
and far between. Polemic epistles make their ap- 
pearance; but they are the letters of non- Jewish 
missionaries like Paul. This form of polemical 
writing possessed many advantages; the letters 
were passed on from one reader to another; they 
would be read aloud, too, before gatherings of the 
people to whom they were addressed. Malmoni- 

281 



JEWS AND LETTERS 

des, in later times, frequently adopted this method 
of communicating with whole communities, and 
many of the Geonim and other Jewish authorities 
followed the same plan. But somehow the device 
seems not to have commended itself to the earliest 
Rabbis. Though we read of many personal visits 
paid by the respective authorities of Babylon and 
Palestine to one another, yet they appear to have 
corresponded very rarely in writing. The reason 
lay probably in the objection felt against commit- 
ting the Halachic, or legal, decisions of the schools 
to writing, and there was little else of consequence 
to communicate after the failure of Bar-Cochba's 
revolt against the Roman rule. 

It must not be thought, however, that this pro- 
hibition had the effect we have described for very 
long. Rabbi Gamaliel, Rabbi Chananiah, and 
many others had frequent correspondence with far 
distant places, and as soon as the Mishnah acquired 
a fixed form, even though it was not immediately 
committed to writing, the recourse to letters be- 
came much more common. Pupils of the com- 
pilers of the Mishnah proceeded to Babylon to 
spread its influence, and they naturally maintained 
a correspondence with their chiefs in Palestine. 
Rab and Samuel in particular, among the Amo- 

282 



JEWS AND LETTERS 

raim, were regular letter-writers, and Rabbi Jocha- 
nan replied to them. Towards the end of the third 
century this correspondence between Judea and 
Babylon became even more active. Abitur and 
Abin often wrote concerning legal decisions and 
the doings of the schools, and thereby the intellec- 
tual activity of Judaism maintained its solidarity 
despite the fact that the Jewish people was no 
longer united in one land. In the Talmud we fre- 
quently read, " they sent from there," viz. Pales- 
tine. Obviously these messages were sent in writ- 
ing, though possibly the bearer of the message was 
often himself a scholar, who conveyed his report 
by word of mouth. Perhaps the growth of the 
Rabbi's practice of writing responses to questions 
— a practice that became so markedly popular In 
subsequent centuries — may be connected with the 
similar habit of the Roman jurists and the Chris- 
tian Church fathers, and the form of response 
adopted by the eighth century Geonim Is reminis- 
cent of that of the Roman lawyers. The substance 
of the letters, however. Is by no means the same; 
the Church father wrote on dogmatic, the Rabbi 
on legal, questions. Between the middle of the 
fourth century and the time of the Geonim, we 
find no Information as to the use of letters among 

283 



JEWS AND LETTERS 

the Jews. From that period onwards, however, 
Jews became very diligent letter-writers, and some- 
times, for instance In the case of the " Guide of 
the Perplexed " of Malmonldes, whole works were 
transmitted in the form of letters. The scattering 
of Israel, too, rendered it Important to Jews to ob- 
tain information of the fortunes of their brethren 
in different parts of the world. Rumors of Messi- 
anic appearances from the twelfth century on- 
wards, the contest with regard to the study of phil- 
osophy, the fame of Individual Rabbis, the rise of 
a class of travellers who made very long and dan- 
gerous journeys, all tended to Increase the facilities 
and necessities of intercourse by letter. It was 
long, however, before correspondence became easy 
or safe. Not everyone Is possessed of the post- 
men assigned In Midrashim to King Solomon, who 
pressed demons Into his service, and forced them 
to carry his letters wheresoever he willed. Chas- 
dai experienced considerable difficulty in transmit- 
ting his famous letter to the king of the Chazars, 
and that despite his position of authority In the 
Spanish State. In 960 a letter on some question of 
Kasher was sent from the Rhine to Palestine — 
proof of the way In which the most remote Jew- 
ish communities corresponded. 

284 



JEWS AND LETTERS 

The question of the materials used in writing 
has an Important bearing on our subject. Of 
course, the ritual regulations for writing the holy- 
books, the special preparation of the parchment, 
the Ink, the strict rules for the formation of the 
letters, hardly fall within the province of this 
article. In ancient times the most diverse sub- 
stances were used for writing on. Palm-leaves 
(for which Palestine of old was famous) were a 
common object for the purpose, being so used all 
over Asia. Some authorities believe that in the 
time of Moses the palm leaf was the ordinary 
writing-material. Olive-leaves, again, were thick 
and hard, while carob-leaves (St. John's bread), 
besides being smooth, long, and broad, were ever- 
green, and thus eminently fitted for writing. Wal- 
nut shells, pomegranate skins, leaves of gourds, 
onion-leaves, lettuce-heads, even the horns of cattle, 
and the human body, letters being tattooed on the 
hands of slaves, were all turned to account. It is 
maintained by some that leather was the original 
writing-material of the Hebrews; others, again, 
give their vote in favor of linen, though the Tal- 
mud does not mention the latter material in connec- 
tion with writing. Some time after Alexander the 
Great, the Egyptian papyrus became common in 



JEWS AND LETTERS 

Palestine, where it probably was known earlier, as 
Jewish letters on papyrus were sent to Jerusalem 
from the Fayyum in the fifth century B. c. E. 
Even as late as Maimonides, the scrolls of the 
Law were written on leather, and not on parch- 
ment, which is now the ordinary material for the 
purpose. That the Torah was not to be written 
on a vegetable product was an assumed first prin- 
ciple. The Samaritans went so far as to insist 
that the animal whose hide was needed for so 
holy a purpose, must be slain Kasher. Similarly 
with divorce documents. A Get on paper would 
be held legal post factum, though it is not allowed 
to use that material, as it is easily destroyed or 
mutilated, and the use of paper for the purpose 
was confined to the East. Some allowed the Book 
of Esther to be read from a paper copy; other au- 
thorities not only strongly objected to this, but 
even forbade the reading of the Haftarah from 
paper. Hence one finds in libraries so many parch- 
ment scrolls containing only the Haftarahs. The 
Hebrew word for letter, Iggereth, is of unknown 
origin, though it is now commonly taken to be an 
Assyrian loan-word. It used to be derived from a 
root signifying to " hire,'' in reference to the 
" hired courier," by whom it was despatched. 

286 



JEWS AND LETTERS 

Other terms for letter, such as '^ book," " roll," ex- 
plain themselves. Black Ink was early used, though 
it is certain that it was either kept in a solid state, 
like India ink, or that it was of the consistency of 
glue, and needed the application of water before it 
could be used. For pens, the iron stylus, the reed, 
needle, and quill (though the last was not admitted 
without a struggle) were the common substitutes 
at various dates. 

We must now return to the subject with which 
we set out, and make a few supplementary re- 
marks with regard to the actual conveyance of 
letters. In the Talmud (Baba Mezia, 83b) a 
proverb is quoted to this effect, " He who can read 
and understand the contents of a letter, may be 
the deliverer thereof." As a rule, one would pre- 
fer that the postman did not read the correspond- 
ence he carries, and this difficulty seems to have 
stood in the way of trusting letters to unknown 
bearers. To remove this obstacle to free inter- 
course, Rabbenu Gershom issued his well-known 
decree, under penalty of excommunication, against 
anyone who, entrusted with a letter to another, 
made himself master of Its contents. To the 
present day. In some places, the Jewish writer 
writes on the outside of his letter, the abbreviation 

287 



JEWS AND LETTERS 

ymnn, which alludes to this injunction of Rab- 
benu Gershom. Again, the Sabbath was and still 
is a difficulty with observant Jews. Rabbi Jose 
ha-Cohen is mentioned in the Talmud (Sabbath, 
19a) as deserving of the following compliment. 
He never allowed a letter of his to get into 
the hands of a non-Jew, for fear he might carry it 
on the Sabbath, and strict laws are laid down on 
the subject. That Christians in modern times en- 
trusted their letters to Jews goes without saying, 
and even in places where this is not commonly al- 
lowed, the non-Jew is employed when the letter 
contains bad news. Perhaps for this reason Rab- 
benu Jacob Tam permitted divorces to be sent by 
post, though the controversy on the legality of such 
delivery is, I believe, still undecided. 

Besides packmen, who would often be the me- 
dium by which letters were transmitted, there was 
In some Jewish communities a special class that de- 
voted themselves to a particular branch of the pro- 
fession. They made it their business to seek out 
lost sons and deliver messages to them from their 
anxious parents. Some later Jewish authorities. 
In view of the distress that the silence of absent 
loved ones causes to those at home, lay down the 
rule that the duty of honoring parents, the fifth 

288 



JEWS AND LETTERS 

commandment, Includes the task of corresponding 
when absent from them. These peripatetic letter- 
carriers also conveyed the documents of divorce to 
women that would otherwise be in the unpleasant 
condition of being neither married nor single. 
Among the most regular and punctual of Jewish 
postmen may be mentioned the bearers of begging 
letters and begging books. There is no fear that 
these will not be duly delivered. 

Our reference to letters of recommendation re- 
minds us of an act, on the part of a modern Rabbi, 
of supererogation In the path of honesty. The 
post Is in the hands of the Government, and, ac- 
cordingly, the late Rabbi Bamberger of Wiirz- 
burg, whenever he gave a Haskamah, or recom- 
mendation, which would be delivered by hand, was 
wont to destroy a postage stamp, so as not to de- 
fraud the Government, even In appearance. With 
this remarkable instance of conscientious upright- 
ness, we may fitly conclude this notice, suggested 
as It has been by the modern Improvements In the 
postal system, v/hlch depend for their success so 
largely on the honesty of the public. 

[Notes, p. 314] 



19 289 



VIII 

The Shape of Matzoth 

Dr. Johnson said, " It is easier to know that a 
cake is bad than to make a good one." I had a 
tiny quantity of material which, by dint of much 
rolling, I might have expanded into a broad, flat, 
unsubstantial whole, I preferred, however, to 
make of my little piece of dough a little cake, small 
and therefore less pretentious. I am afraid that 
even in this concentrated form it will prove flavor- 
less and indigestible, but the cook must be blamed, 
not the material. 

I have no intention to consider the various opera- 
tions connected with the preparation of unleavened 
Passover cakes : the kneading, the ingredients, the 
curious regulations regarding the water used, such 
precautions as carefully watching the ovens. Those 
who are inclined to connect some of these customs 
with the practices of non-Jewish peoples will find 
some interesting facts on all theses topics; but 
what I wish to speak of now is the shape and form 
of Passover cakes. 

290 



THE SHAPE OF MATZOTH 

The Christian emblems that figure in the cele- 
bration of the Eucharist, or Lord^s Supper, were 
probably derived from the ceremxonies of the 
Passover eve. The bread employed in the Eucha- 
rist is with some Christian sects unleavened, and, 
indeed, leavened cakes seem to have been intro- 
duced solely as a protest against certain so-called 
Judaizing tendencies. The Latin Church still con- 
tends for the propriety of employing unleavened 
bread, and from the seventh century unleavened 
bread was used at Rome and leavened bread at 
Constantinople. From the earliest times, how- 
ever, the Eucharistic loaves were invariably round 
in shape, there being, indeed, a supposed edict by 
Pope Zephyrinus (197-217) to that effect. It is 
passing strange that Bona, an ecclesiastical writer, 
derived this roundness from the shape of the coins 
Judas received for betraying his master. But 
though there is no distinct enactment either in the 
Talmud or In any of the later codes as to what 
the form of the Matzoth must be, these have 
been from time Immemorial round also. Some 
MInhagim are more firmly rooted than actual laws, 
and this custom is one of them. In one of his car- 
toons, Picard has an illustration which Is appar- 
ently that of a squarish Matzah; this may, how- 

291 



THE SHAPE OF MATZOTH 

ever, be only a case of defective drawing. It is true 
that in Roumania square Matzoth are used, but 
in the controversy raised by the introduction of 
Matzah-making machines, the opponents of the 
change argued as though no other than a round 
shape were conceivable. Kluger, for instance, never 
seems to have realized that his weightiest objec- 
tion to the use of the machine would be obviated 
by making the Matzoth square or rectangular. 
When it was first proposed to introduce Matzah 
machines in London, the resistance came chiefly 
from the manufacturers, and not from the eccle- 
siastical authorities. The bakers refused categori- 
cally to make square Matzoth, declaring that if 
they did so, their stock would be unsalable. Even 
to the present day no square Matzoth are baked in 
London ; those occasionally seen there are imported 
from the Continent. The ancient Egyptians made 
their cakes round, and the Matzoth are regarded 
Midrashically as a memorial of the food which the 
Egyptian masters forced on their Israelite slaves. 
A round shape is apparently the simplest symmetri- 
cal form, but beyond this I fancy that the round 
form of the Passover bread is partly due to the 
double meaning of Uggoth Matzoth. The word 
Uggoth signifies cakes baked in the sand or hot 



THE SHAPE OF MATZOTH 

embers; but Uggah also means a "circle." To re- 
turn, however, to the Eucharistic wafers. — — 

A further point of Identity, though only a mi- 
nute detail, can be traced in the regulation that the 
Eucharistic oblate from which the priest communi- 
cated was, in the ninth century, larger than the 
loaves used by the people. So the Passover cakes 
(Shimmurim) used by the master of the house, 
and particularly the middle cake, pieces of which 
were distributed, were made larger than the ordi- 
nary Matzoth. Picard (1723) curiously enough 
reverses this relation, and draws the ordinary 
Matzoth much larger and thicker than the Shim- 
murim. The ordinary Matzoth he represents as 
thick oval cakes, with a single coil of large holes, 
which start outwards from the centre. Picard 
speaks of Matzoth made in different shapes, but 
he gives no details. 

In the Middle Ages, and, indeed, as early as 
Chrysostom (fourth century), the Church cakes 
were marked with a cross, and bore various inscrip- 
tions. In the Coptic Church, for example, the le- 
gend was " Holy ! holy ! holy is the Lord of hosts." 
Now, in a Latin work, Roma suhterranea, about 
1650, a statement is made which seems to imply 
that the Passover cakes of the Jews were also 

293 



THE SHAPE OF MATZOTH 

marked with crosses. What can have led to this 
notion ? The origin is simple enough. The ancient 
Romans, as Aringhus himself writes, and as Virgil, 
Horace, and Martial frequently mention, made 
their loaves with cross indentations, in order to 
facilitate dividing them into four parts: much as 
nowadays Scotch scones are baked four together, 
and the central dividing lines give the fourfold 
scone the appearance of bearing a cross mark. It 
may be that the Jews made their Passover cakes, 
which were thicker than ours and harder to break, 
in the same way. But, besides, the small holes and 
indentations that cover the surface of the modern 
Matzah might, if the Matzah be held in certain 
positions, possibly be mistaken for a cross. These 
indentations are, I should add, very ancient, being 
referred to in the Talmud, and, if I may venture 
a suggestion, also In the Bible, I Kings xiv. 3, and 
elsewhere, Nekudim being cakes punctuated with 
small interstices. 

We can carry the explanation a little further. 
The three Matzoth Shimmurim used in the Hag- 
gadah Service were made with especial care, and in 
medieval times were denominated Priest, Levite, 
Israelite, In order to discriminate among them. 
Picard, by an amusing blunder, speaks of a gateau 

294 



THE SHAPE OF MATZOTH 

des levites; he, of course, means the middle cake. 
From several authorities it is clear that the three 
Matzoth were inscribed in some cases with these 
three words, in others with the letters Alef, Beth, 
Gimmel, in order to distinguish them. A rough 
Alef would not look unlike a cross. Later on, 
the three Matzoth were distinguished by one, two, 
three indentations respectively, as in the Roman 
numerals; and even at the present day care is 
sometimes taken, though in other ways, to prevent 
the Priest, Levite, and Israelite from falling into 
confusion. I do not know whether the stringent 
prohibition, by the Shulchan Jruch, of " shaped 
or marked cakes " for use on Passover, may not 
be due to the fact that the Eucharistic cakes used 
by Christians were marked with letters and sym- 
bols. Certain it is that the prohibition of these 
" shaped " cakes is rather less emphatic in the Tal- 
mud than In the later authorities, who up to a cer- 
tain date are never weary of condemning or at 
least discouraging the practice. The custom of 
using these cakes Is proved to be widespread by 
the very frequency of the prohibitions, and they 
were certainly common In the beginning of the six- 
teenth century, from which period seems to date 
the custom of making the Matzoth very thin, 

295 



THE SHAPE OF MATZOTH 

though the thicker species has not been entirely 
superseded even up to the present day. In the 
East the Matzoth are still made very thick and 
unpalatable. They cannot be eaten as they are; 
they are either softened, by being dipped in some 
liquid, or they are ground down to meal, and then 
remade into smaller and more edible cakes. 

The Talmud mentions a *' stamp " in connec- 
tion with '' shaped cakes," which Buxtorf takes 
for Lebkuchen, and Levy for scalloped and fanci- 
fully-edged cakes. The Geonim, however, ex- 
plain that they were made in the forms of birds, 
beasts, and fishes. I have seen Matzoth made In 
this way in London, and have myself eaten many 
a Matzah sheep and monkey, but, unfortunately, I 
cannot recollect whether It was during Passover. 
In Holland, these shaped cakes are still used, but 
In " strict " families only before the Passover. 

Limits of space will not allow me to quote some 
interesting notes with reference to Hebrew Inscrip- 
tions on cakes generally, which would furnish par- 
allels to the Holy! holy! of the Coptic wafers. 
Children received such cakes as a '* specific for be- 
coming wise." Some directions may be found In 
Sefer Raziel for making charm-cakes, which must 
have been the reverse of charming from the unut- 
terable names of angels written on them. One such 

296 



THE SHAPE OF MATZOTH 

charm, however, published by Horwitz, I cannot 
refrain from mentioning, as It Is very curious and 
practical. It constitutes a never-failing antidote to 
forgetfulness, and, for aught I know, may be quite 
as efficacious as some of the quack mnemonic sys- 
tems extensively advertised nowadays. 

" The following hath been tried and found reliable, and Rabbi 
Saadia ben Joseph made use of it. He discovered it in the cave 
of Rabbi Eleazar Kalir, and all the wise men of Israel together 
with their pupils applied the remedy with excellent effect: — At 
the beginning of the month of Sivan take some wheatmeal and 
knead it, and be sure to remain standing. Make cakes and bake 
them, write thereon the verse, * Memory hath He made among 
His wondrous acts: gracious and merciful is the Lord.' Take 
an egg and boil it hard, peel it, and write on it the names of 
five angels; eat such a cake every day, for thirty days, with an 
€gg, and thou wilt learn all thou seest, and wilt never forget." 

The manuscript Illuminated Haggadahs are re- 
plete with Interest and Information. But I must 
avoid further observations on these manuscripts ex- 
cept In so far as they illustrate my present subject. 
In the Haggadah the question Is asked, " Why do 
we eat this Matzah?" and at the words "this 
Matzah " the Illuminated manuscripts contain, In 
the great majority of cases, representations of Mat- 
zoth. These In some Instances present rather In- 

297 



THE SHAPE OF MATZOTH 

teresting features, which may throw historical light 
on the archeology of the subject. Some of thcvse 
figured Matzoth are oval, one I have seen star- 
shaped, but almost all are circular in form. Many, 
however, unlike the modern Matzah and owing to 
the shape of the mould, have a broad border dis- 
tinct from the rest of the cake. The Crawford 
Haggadah, now in the Ryland library, Manchester, 
pictures a round Matzah through which a pretty 
flowered design runs. Others, again, and this I 
think a very ancient, as it certainly is a very com- 
mon, design, are covered with transverse lines, 
which result in producing diamond-shaped spaces 
with a very pleasing effect, resembling somewhat 
the appearance of the lattice work cakes used in 
Italy and Persia, I think. The lines, unless they be 
mere pictorial embellishments, are, possibly, as in 
the Leeds cakes, rows of indentations resulting 
from the punctuation of the Matzah. In one 
British Museum manuscript (Roman rite, 1482), 
the star and diamond shapes are combined, the bor- 
der being surrounded with small triangles, and the 
centre of the cake being divided into diamond-like 
sections. In yet another manuscript the Matzah 
has a border, divided by small lines into almost 
rectangular sections, while the body of the cake is 

298 



THE SHAPE OF MATZOTH 

ornamented with a design in which variously shaped 
figures, quadrilaterals and triangles, are irregularly 
interspersed. One fanciful picture deserves special 
mention, as it is the only one of the kind in all the il- 
lustrated manuscripts and printed Haggadahs in the 
Oxford and British Museum libraries. This Mat- 
zah occurs in an Italian manuscript of the four- 
teenth century. It is adorned with a flowered bor- 
der, and in the centre appears a human-faced quad- 
ruped of apparently Egyptian character. 

Poetry and imagination are displayed in some 
of these devices, but in only one or two cases did 
the artists attain high levels of picturesque illustra- 
tion. How suggestive, for instance, is the chain 
pattern, adopted in a manuscript of the Michaehs 
Collection at Oxford. It must not be thought that 
this idea at least was never literally realized, for 
only last year I was shown a Matzah made after a 
very similar design, possibly not for use on the first 
two nights of Passover. The bread of affliction re- 
calls the Egyptian bonds, and it Is an ingenious 
idea to bid us ourselves turn the ancient chains to 
profitable use — by eating them. This expressive 
design Is surpassed by another, found In a beauti- 
fully-illuminated manuscript of the fourteenth cen- 
tury. This Matzah bears a curious device In the 

299 



THE SHAPE OF MATZOTH 



centre: it is a prison door modelled with consid- 
erable skill, but I do not suppose that Matzoth 
were ever made in this fashion. 

[Notes, pp. 314-315] 



300 



NOTES 

" THE BOOK OF DELIGHT " 

(pp. 9-61) 

The connection between Zabara's work and the Solomon and 
Marcolf legend was first pointed out in my " Short History of 
Jewish Literature" (1906), p. 95. I had long before detected 
the resemblance, though I was not aware of it when I wrote 
an essay on Zabara in the Jeivish Quarterly Remenv. To the 
latter (vi, pp. 502 et seq.) the reader is referred for biblio- 
graphical notes, and also for details on the textual relations of 
the two editions of Zabara's poem. 

A number of parallels with other folk-literatures are there in- 
dicated ; others have been added by Dr. Israel Davidson, in his 
edition of the "Three Satires" (New York, 1904), which accom- 
pany the " Book of Delight " in the Constantinople edition, and 
are also possibly by Zabara. 

The late Professor David Kaufmann informed me some years 
ago that he had a manuscript of the poem in his possession. 
But, after his death, the manuscript could not be found in his 
library. Should It eventually be rediscovered. It would be de- 
sirable to have a new, carefully printed edition of the Hebrew 
text of the "Book of Delight." I would gladly place at the 
disposal of the editor my copy of the Constantinople edition, 
made from the Oxford specimen. The Bodleian copy does riot 
seem to be unique, as had been supposed. 

The literature on the Solomon and Marcolf legend is exten- 
sive. The following references may suffice. J. M. Kemble 
published (London, 1848) "The Dialogue of Solomon and 
Saturnus," for the Aelfric Society. " Of all the forms of the 

301 



NOTES—A VISIT TO HEBRON 

story yet preserved," says Mr. Kerable, "the Anglo-Saxon are 
undoubtedly the oldest." He talks vaguely of the intermixture 
of Oriental elements, but assigns a northern origin to one portion 
of the story. Grimm had argued for a Hebrew source, think- 
ing Marcolf a name of scorn in Hebrew. But the Hebrew Mar- 
colis (or however one may spell it) is simply Mercury. In the 
Latin version, however, Marcolf is distinctly represented as 
coming from the East. William of Tyre (12th cent.) suggests 
the identity of Marcolf with Abdemon, whom Josephus ("Antiq- 
uities," VIII, V, 3) names as Hiram's Riddle-Guesser. A useful 
English edition is E. Gordon Duff's " Dialogue or Communing 
between the Wise King Salomon and Marcolphus " (London, 
1892). Here, too, as in the Latin version, Marcolf is a man 
from the Orient. Besides these books, two German works de- 
serve special mention. F. Vogt, in his essay entitled Die deutschen 
Dichtungen 'von Salomon und Markolf, which appeared in Halle, 
in 1880, also thinks Marcolf an Eastern. Finally, as the second 
part of his Untersuchungen zur mittelhochdeutschen Spielmanns- 
poesie" (Schwerin, 1894), H. Tardel published Zum Salman- 
Morolf, Tardel is skeptical as to the Eastern provenance of the 
legend. 

It has been thought that a form of this legend is referred to 
in the fifth century. The Contradictio Solomonis, which Pope 
Gelasius excluded from the sacred canon, has been identified 
with some version of the Marcolf story. 

A VISIT TO HEBRON 

(pp. 62-92) 

The account of Hebron, given in this volume, must be read for 
what it was designed to be, an impressionist sketch. The history 
of the site, in so far as it has been written, must be sought in 
more technical books. As will be seen from several details, my 
visit was paid in the month of April, just before Passover. 
Things have altered in some particulars since I was there, but 
there has been no essential change in the past decade. 

302 



NOTES— THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

The Hebron Haram, or shrine over the Cave of Machpelah, 
is fully described in the "Cruise of H. M. S. Bacchante, 1879- 
1882," ii, pp. 595-619. (Compare "Survey of Western Pales- 
tine," iii, pp. 333-346; and the Quarterly Statement of the Pales- 
tine Exploration Fund, 1882, pp. 197-214.) Colonel Conder's 
account narrates the experiences of the present King of England 
at the Haram in April, 1882. Dean Stanley had previously en- 
tered the Haram with King Edward VH, in January, 1862 (see 
Stanley's "Sermons in the East," 1863, pp. 141-169). A good 
note on the relation between these modern narratives and David 
Reubeni's (dating from the early part of the sixteenth century) 
was contributed by Canon Dalton to the Quarterly Statement, 
1897, P- 53- A capital plan of the Haram is there printed. 

Mr. Adler's account of his visit to Hebron will be found in 
his "Jews in Many Lands," pp. 104-11 1; he tells of his entry 
into the Haram on pp. 137-138. 

M. Lucien Gautier's work referred to is his Souvenirs du 
Terre-Sainte (Lausanne, 1898). The description of glass-mak- 
ing appears on p. 53 of that work. 

The somewhat startling identification of the Ramet el-Khalil, 
near Hebron, with the site of the altar built by Samuel in 
Ramah (I Sam. vii. 17) Is justified at length in Mr. Shaw Calde- 
cott's book "The Tabernacle, its History and Structure" (Lon- 
don, 1904). 

THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

(pp. 93-121) 

The opening quotation is from the Ethical Will of Judah ibn 
Tibbon, the " father " of Jewish translators. The original is 
fully analyzed in an essay by the present writer, in the Je<wish 
Quarterly Revienv, iii, 453. See also ibidem, p. 483. The Hebrew 
text was printed by Edelmann, and also by Steinschneider ; by 
the latter at Berlin, 1852. 

A writer much cited in this same essay, Richard of Bury, de- 
rived his name from his birthplace. Bury St. Edmunds. " He 
tells us himself in his ' Philobiblon ' that he used his high offices 

303 



NOTES— THE SOLACE OF BOOKS 

of state as a means of collecting books. He let it be known that 
books were the most acceptable presents that could be made to 
him" (** Dictionary of National Biography," viii, 26). He was 
also a student of Hebrew, and collected grammars of that lan- 
guage. Altogether his " Philobiblon " is an " admirable exhibi- 
tion of the temper of a book-lover." Written In the early part 
of the fourteenth century, the " Philobiblon " was first published, 
at Cologne, in 1473. The English edition cited in this essay is 
that published in the King's Classics (De la More Library, ed. 
I. Gollancz). 

The citation from Montaigne is from his essay on the " Three 
Commerces" (bk. iii, ch. iii). The same passages, in Florio's 
rendering, will be found in Mr. A. R. Waller's edition (Dent's 
Everyman's Library), iii, pp. 48-50. Of the three "Com- 
merces" {i. e. societies) — Men, Women, and Books — Montaigne 
proclaims that the commerce of books " is much more solid-sure 
and much more ours." I have claimed Montaigne as the great- 
grandson of a Spanish Jew on the authority of Mr. Waller (In- 
troduction, p. vii). 

The paragraphs on books from the " Book of the Pious," 
§§ 873-932, have been collected (and translated into English) 
by the Rev. Michael Adler, in an essay called " A Medieval 
Bookworm" (see The Bookivorm, ii, 251). 

The full title of Mr. Alexander Ireland's book — so much 
drawn upon in this essay — is " The Book-Lover's Enchiridion, a 
Treasury of Thoughts on the Solace and Companionship of 
Books, Gathered from the Writings of the Greatest Thinkers, 
from Cicero, Petrarch, and Montaigne, to Carlyle, Emerson, and 
Ruskin" (London and New York, 1894). 

Mr. F. M. Nichols' edition of the "Letters of Erasmus" (1901) 
is the source of the quotation of one of that worthy's letters. 

The final quotation comes from the Wisdom of Solomon, ch. 
vi. V. 12; ch. viii. vv. 2, i6\ and ch. ix. v. 4. The " radiance " of 
Wisdom is, in ch. vii, 26, explained in the famous words, " For 
she is an eifulgence from everlasting light, an unspotted mirror 
of the working of God, and an image of His goodness." 

304 



/[EDIEVAL WAYFARING 
EVAL WAYFARING 

(pp. 122-158) 

ly of the statements in this paper will be 
ts in " Jewish Life in the Middle Ages," 
literature, and in such easily accessible 
tory of the Jews." 

luch used by me. His " Book of Geneal- 

:) was written in 1055. The Hebrew 

Dr. A. Neubauer in his " Mediaeval 

pp. 114 et seq. I might have cited 

in amusing incident in the synagogue at 

;n an uproar in the Jewish quarter, and 

5 on the subject to the manuscript of the 

'■elling preacher was to read on the fol- 

effect of the reading may be imagined. 

my of my statements is a work by Julius 

Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland, 

many new facts on the medieval Jewries 

the Jewish sailors told by Synesius is 
ver's " Life and Letters in the Fourth 
C901), p. 330. 
n communal organization with regard to 

nd settlers was contributed by Weinberg 

Monatsschrift. The title of the series of 
*ion der jiidischen Gemeinden. 
existence of Communal Codes, or Note- 

er's Beitrdge zur Geschichte der Raschi- 

>3» P- 3- 

" Itinerary " has been often edited, most 
N. Adler (London, 1907). Benjamin's 
rs II 66 to 1171, and his narrative is at 
rtaining. The motives for his extensive 
;, Asia, and Africa are thus summed up 
dii) : " At the time of the Crusades, the 

305 



NOTES— THE SOLACE 01 

of state as a means of collecting books. I 
books were the most acceptable presents 
him" ("Dictionary of National Biography 
also a student of Hebrew, and collected 
guage. Altogether his " Philobiblon " is 
tion of the temper of a book-lover." Wi 
of the fourteenth century, the " Philobibloi 
at Cologne, in 1473. The English editioi 
that published in the King's Classics (D( 
I. Gollancz). 

The citation from Montaigne is from hi 
Commerces" (bk. iii, ch. iii). The sam 
rendering, will be found in Mr. A. R. \^ 
Everyman's Library), iii, pp. 48-50. 
merces" {i. e. societies) — Men, Women, 
proclaims that the commerce of books "is 
and much more ours." I have claimed '^. 
grandson of a Spanish Jew on the authori 
troduction, p. vii). 

The paragraphs on books from the 
§§ 873-932, have been collected (and tr; 
by the Rev. Michael Adler, in an essay 
Bookworm" (see The Bookzvorm, ii, 251) 

The full title of Mr. Alexander Ire 
drawn upon In this essay — is " The Book- 
Treasury of Thoughts on the Solace a 
Books, Gathered from the Writings of t 
from Cicero, Petrarch, and Montaigne, to 
Ruskin" (London and New York, 1894). 

Mr. F. M. Nichols' edition of the " Lettei 
is the source of the quotation of one of tha 

The final quotation comes from the W 
vi. V. 12; ch. viii. vv. 2, i6; and ch. ix. v. < 
Wisdom is, in ch. vii, 26, explained in th 
she is an effulgence from everlasting lighi 
of the working of God, and an image of H 

304 



NOTES— MEDIEVAL WAYFARING 
MEDIEVAL V^AYFARING 

(pp. 132-158) 

The evidence for many of the statements in this paper will be 
found in various contexts in " Jewish Life in the Middle Ages," 
in the Hebrew travel literature, and in such easily accessible 
works as Graetz's " History of the Jews." 

Achimaaz has been much used by me. His " Book of Geneal- 
ogies " {Sefer Yochasin) was written in 1055. The Hebrew 
text was included by Dr. A. Neubauer in his " Mediaeval 
Jewish Chronicles," ii, pp. 114 et seq. I might have cited 
Achimaaz's account of an amusing incident in the synagogue at 
Venosa. There had been an uproar in the Jewish quarter, and 
a wag added some lines on the subject to the manuscript of the 
Midrash which the travelling preacher was to read on the fol- 
lowing Sabbath. The effect of the reading may be imagined. 

Another source for many of my statements is a work by Julius 
Aronius, Kegesten %ur Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland, 
Berlin, 1893. It presents many new facts on the medieval Jewries 
of Germany. 

The quaint story of the Jewish sailors told by Synesius is 
taken from T. R. Glover's " Life and Letters in the Fourth 
Century" (Cambridge, 1901), p. 330. 

A careful statement on communal organization with regard to 
the status of travellers and settlers was contributed by Weinberg 
to vol. xli of the Breslau Monatsschrift. The title of the series of 
papers is Die Organisation der jiidischen Gemeinden. 

For evidence of the existence of Communal Codes, or Note- 
Books, see Dr. A. Berliner's Beitrdge zur Geschichte der Raschi- 
Commentare, Berlin, 1903, p. 3. 

Benjamin of Tudela's "Itinerary" has been often edited, most 
recently by the late M. N. Adler (London, 1907). Benjamin's 
travels occupied the years 1166 to 11 71, and his narrative is at 
once informing and entertaining. The motives for his extensive 
journeys through Europe, Asia, and Africa are thus summed up 
by Mr. Adler (pp. xii, xiii) : "At the time of the Crusades, the 

20 305 



NOTES— THE FOX'S HEART 

most prosperous communities in Germany and the Jewish con- 
gregations that lay along the route to Palestine had been exter- 
minated or dispersed, and even in Spain, where the Jews had 
enjoyed complete security for centuries, they were being piti- 
lessly persecuted in the Moorish kingdom of Cordova. It is not 
unlikely, therefore, that Benjamin may have undertaken his 
journey with the object of finding out where his expatriated 
brethren might find an asylum. It will be noted that Benjamin 
seems to use every effort to trace and aflford particulars of inde- 
pendent communities of Jews, who had chiefs of their own, and 
owed no allegiance to the foreigner. He may have had trade 
and mercantile operations in view. He certainly dwells on mat- 
ters of commercial interest with considerable detail. Probably 
he was actuated by both motives, coupled with the pious wish 
of making a pilgrimage to the land of his fathers." 

For Jewish pilgrims to Palestine see Steinschneider's contribu- 
tion to Rohricht and Meisner's Deutsche Pilgerreisen, pp. 548- 
648. My statement as to the existence of a Jewish colony at 
Ramleh in the eleventh century is based on Genizah documents 
at Cambridge, T. S. 13 J. i. 

For my account of the Trade Routes of the Jews in the medie- 
val period, I am indebted to Beazley's " Dawn of Modern Geo- 
graphy," p. 430. 

The Letter of Nachmanides is quoted from Dr. Schechter's 
"Studies in Judaism," First Series, pp. 131 et seq. The text of 
Obadiah of Bertinoro's letter was printed by Dr. Neubauer in the 
Jahrbuch fur die Geschichte der Juden, 1863. 

THE FOX'S HEART 
(pp. 159-171) 

The main story discussed in this essay is translated from the 
so-called " Alphabet of Ben Sira," the edition used being Stein- 
schneider's {Alphabetum Siracidis, Berlin, 1858). 

The original work consists of two Alphabets of Proverbs, — 
twenty-two in Aramaic and twenty-two in Hebrew — and is ena^ 

806 



NOTES— " MARRIAGES ARE MADE IN HEAVEN" 

bellished with comments and fables. A full account of the book 
is given in a very able article by Professor L. Ginzberg, " Jew- 
ish Encyclopedia," ii, p. 678. The author is not the Ben Sira 
who wrote the Wisdom book in the Apocrypha, but the ascription 
of it to him led to the incorporation of some legends concerning 
him. Dr. Ginzberg also holds this particular Fox Fable to be a 
composite, and to be derived more or less from Indian originals. 



"MARRIAGES ARE MADE IN HEAVEN" 

(pp. 172-183) 

The chief authorities to which the reader is referred are: 
Midrash Rabha, Genesis §68 ; Leviticus §29 ; and Numbers §§3 
and 22. Further, Midrash Tanchuma, to the sections Ki tissa, 
Mattoth, and Vayishlach; Midrash Samuel, eh. v; Babylonian 
Talmud, Moed Katon, 18b, and Sotah, 2a. 

In Dr. W. Bacher's Agada der Tannaiten, ii, pp. 168-170, will 
be found important notes on some of these passages. 

I have freely translated the story of Solomon's daughter from 
Buber's Tanchuma, Introduction, p. 136. It is clearly pieced to- 
gether from several stories, too familiar to call for the citation 
of parallels. With one of the incidents may be compared the 
device of Sindbad in his second voyage. He binds himself to 
one of the feet of a rukh, i. e. condor, or bearded vulture. In 
another adventure he attaches himself to the carcass of a 
slaughtered animal, and is borne aloft by a vulture. A similar 
incident may be noted in Pseudo-Ben Sira (Steinschneider, p. 5). 

Compare also Gubernatis, Zool. Myth, ii, 94. The fabulous 
anka was banished as punishment for carrying off a bride. 

For the prayers based on belief in the Divine appointment of 
marriages, see " Jewish Life in the Middle Ages," ch. x. 

One of the many sixteenth century Tobit dramas is Tobie, 
Comedie De Catherin Le Doux: En laquelle on void comme les 
marriages sont faicts an del, & gu'il n'y a rien qui eschafpe la 
providence de Dieu (Cassel, 1604). 

307 



NOTES— HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

HEBREW LOVE SONGS 
(pp. 184-241) 

From personal observation, Dr. G. H. Dalman collected a large 
number of modern Syrian songs in his Paldstinischer Diivan 
(Leipzig, 1901). The songs were taken down, and the melodies 
noted, in widely separated districts. Judea, the Hauran, Leba- 
non, are all represented. Dr. Dalman prints the Arabic text 
in " Latin " transliteration, and appends German renderings. 
Wetzstein's earlier record of similar folk-songs appears in De- 
litzsch's Commentary on Canticles — HoheliedundKoheletk,iS'/s — 
and also in the Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie, v, p. 287. Previous 
commentators had sometimes held that the Song of Songs was a 
mere collection of detached and independent fragments, but on 
the basis of Wetzstein's discoveries. Professor Budde elaborated 
his theory, that the Song is a Syrian wedding-minstrel's reper- 
tory. 

This theory will be found developed in Budde's Commentary 
on Canticles (1898) ; it is a volume in Marti's Kurzer Hand- 
Commentar zum Alien Testament. An elaborate and destructive 
criticism of the repertory theory may be read in Appendix ii of 
Mr. Andrew Harper's "Song of Solomon" (1902): the book 
forms a volume in the series of the Cambridge Bible for Schools. 
Harper's is a very fine work, and not the least of its merits is 
its exposition of the difficulties which confront the attempt to deny 
unity of plot and plan to the Biblical song. Harper also ex- 
presses a sound view as to the connection between love-poetry 
and mysticism. " Sensuality and mysticism are twin moods of 
the mind." The allegorical significance of the Song of Songs goes 
back to the Targum, an English version of which has been 
published by Professor H. Gollancz in his "Translations from 
Hebrew and Aramaic" (1908). 

Professor J. P. Mahaffy's view on the Idylls of Theocritus may 
be read In his " History of Greek Literature," H, p. 170, and in 
several pages of his "Greek Life and Thought" (see Index, 
s. 1),). 

308 



NOTES— HEBREW LOVE SONGS 

The passage in which Graetz affirms the borrowing of the 
pastoral scheme by the author of Canticles from Theocritus, is 
translated from p. 69 of Graetz's Schir ha-Schirim, oder das 
salomonische Hohelied (Vienna, 1871). Though the present 
writer differs entirely from the opinion of Graetz on this point, 
he has no hesitation in describing Graetz's Commentary as a 
masterpiece of brilliant originality. 

The rival theory, that Theocritus borrowed from the Biblical 
Song, is supported by Professor D. S. Margoliouth, in his " Lines 
of Defence of the Biblical Revelation" (1900), pp. 2-7. He also 
suggests (p. 7), that Theocritus borrowed lines 86-87 of Idyll 
xxiv from Isaiah xi. 6. 

The evidence from the scenery of the Song, in favor of the 
natural and indigenous origin of the setting of the poem, is 
strikingly illustrated in G. A. Smith's " Historical Geography of 
the Holy Land" (ed. 1901), pp. 310-311. The quotation from 
Laurence Oliphant Is taken from his " Land of Gilead " (Lon- 
don, 1880). 

Egyptian parallels to Canticles occur in the hieroglyphic love- 
poems published by Maspero In Etudes egyftiennes, i, pp. 217 
et seq., and by Splegelberg in Aegyptiaca (contained in the Ebers 
Festschrift, pp. 177 et seq.). Maspero, describing. In 1883, the 
affinities of Canticles to the old Egyptian love songs, uses almost 
the same language as G. E. Lessing employed in 1777, In summar- 
izing the similarities between Canticles and Theocritus. It will 
amuse the reader to see the passages side by side. 

Maspero Lessing 

// n'y a personne qui, en Immo sunt qui maximam 

lisant la traduction de ces similitudinem inter Canticum 

chants, ne soit frappe de la Canticorum et Theocriti Idyllia 

ressemhlance qu'ils presentent esse statuant quod iisdem 

a<vec le Caniique des Cantiques. fere ^videtur esse 'verbis, lo- 

Ce sont les memes faqons , quendi formulis, similibus, 

les memes images , les transitu, figuri's. 

memes comparaisons. 

809 



NOTES— GEORGE ELIOT AND SOLOMON MAIMON 

If these resemblances were so very striking, then, as argued 
in the text of this essay, the Idylls of Theocritus ought to resemble 
the Egyptian poems. This, however, they utterly fail to do. 

For my acquaintance with the modern Greek songs I am 
indebted to Mr. G. F. Abbott's " Songs of Modern Greece " 
(Cambridge, 1900). The Levantine character of the melodies 
to Hebrew Piyyutim based on the Song of Songs is pointed out 
by Mr. F. L. Cohen, in the "Jewish Encyclopedia," i, p. 294, 
and iii, p. 47. 

The poem of Taubah, and the comments on it, are taken from 
C. J. L. Lyall's " Translations of Ancient Arabic Poetry, chiefly 
prae-Islamic " (1885), p. 76. 

The Hebrew text of Moses ibn Ezra's poem — cited with refer- 
ence to the figure of love surviving the grave — may be found in 
Kaempf's Zehn Makamen (1858), p. 215. A German transla- 
tion is given, I believe, in the same author's Nichtandalusische 
Poesie andalusischer Dichter. 

Many Hebrew love-poems, in German renderings, are quoted 
in Dr. A. Sulzbach's essay, Die poetische Litteratur (second sec- 
tion, Die lueltliche Poesie), contributed to the third volume of 
Winter and Wiinsche's JUdische Litteratur (1876). His com- 
ments, cited in my essay, occur in that work, p. 160. Amy Levy's 
renderings of some of Jehudah Halevi's love songs are quoted 
by Lady Magnus in the first of her " Jewish Portraits." Dr. J. 
Egers discusses Samuel ha-Nagid's " Stammering Maid " in the 
Graetz Juhelschrift (1877), PP- 116-126. 

GEORGE ELIOT AND SOLOMON MAIMON 

(pp. 242-246) 

The Autobiography of Solomon Maimon (1754-1800) was 
published in Berlin (1792-3) in two parts, under the title Salo- 
mon Maimon's Lebensgeschichte. Moses Mendelssohn befriended 
Maimon, in so far as it was possible to befriend so wajr^ard a 
personality. Maimon made real contributions to philosophy. 

The description of Daniel Deronda's purchase of the volume is 

310 



NOTES— HOW MILTON PRONOUNCED HEBREW 

contained in ch. xxxiii of the novel. In Holborn, Deronda came 
across a " second-hand book-shop, where, on a narrow table out- 
side, the literature of the ages was represented in judicious mix- 
ture, from the immortal verse of Homer to the mortal prose of 
the railway novel. That the mixture was judicious was apparent 
from Deronda's finding in it something that he wanted — namely, 
that wonderful piece of autobiography, the life of the Polish Jew, 
Salomon Maimon." 

The man in temporary charge of the shop was Mordecai. This 
is his first meeting with Deronda, who, after an intensely dra- 
matic interval, " paid his half-crown and carried off his ' Salomon 
Maimon's Lebensgeschichte ' with a mere ' Good Morning.' " 

HOW MILTON PRONOUNCED HEBREW 

(pp. 247-250) 

Milton's transliterations are printed in several editions of his 
poems; the version used in this book is that given in D. Mas- 
son's "Poetical Works of Milton," iii, pp. 5-11. The notes 
of the late A. B. Davidson on Milton's Hebrew knowledge are 
cited in the same volume by Masson (p. 483). Landor had no 
high opinion of Milton as a translator. " Milton," he said, " was 
never so much a regicide as when he lifted up his hand and 
smote King David." But there can be no doubt of Milton's 
familiarity with the original, whatever be the merit of the 
translations. To me, Milton's rendering of Psalm Ixxxiv seems 
very fine. 

The controversy between the advocates of the versions of Rous 
and Barton — which led to Milton's effort — is described in Masson, 
ii, p. 312. 

Reuchlin's influence on the pronunciation of Hebrew in Eng- 
land is discussed by Dr. S. A. Hirsch, in his " Book of Essays " 
(London, 1905), p. 60. Roger Bacon, at a far earlier date, must 
have pronounced Hebrew in much the same way, but he was 
not guilty of the monstrosity of turning the Ayin into a nasal. 
Bacon (as may be seen from the facsimile printed by Dr. Hirsch) 
left the letter Ayin unpronounced, which is by far the best course 
for Westerns to adopt. 

311 



NOTES— THE MYSTICS AND SAINTS OF INDIA 

THE CAMBRIDGE PLATONISTS 

(pp. 251-254) 

Henry More (1614-1687) was the most important of the 
" Cambridge Platonists." Several of his works deal with the 
Jewish Cabbala. More recognized a " Threefold Cabbala, Lit- 
eral, Philosophical, and Mystical, or Divinely Moral." He ded- 
icated his Conjectura Cahbalistica to Cudworth, Master of 
Christ's College, Cambridge, of which More was a Fellow. Cud- 
worth was one of those who attended the Whitehall Conference, 
summoned by Cromwell in 1655 to discuss the readmission of 
the Jews to England. 

Platonic influence was always prevalent in mystical thought. 
The Cabbala has intimate relations with neo-Platonism. 

THE ANGLO-JEWISH YIDDISH LITERARY SOCIETY 

(pp. 255-258) 

The question raised as to the preservation of Yiddish is not 
unimportant at this juncture. It is clear that the old struggle 
between Hebrew and Yiddish for predominance as the Jewish 
language must become more and more severe as Hebrew ad- 
vances towards general acceptance as a living language. 

Probably the struggle will end in compromise. Hebrew might 
become one of the two languages spoken by Jews, irrespective of 
what the other language might happen to be. 

THE MYSTICS AND SAINTS OF INDIA 
(pp. 259-265) 

The full title of Professor Oman's work is "The Mystics, 
Ascetics, and Saints of India. A Study of Sadhuism, with an 
account of the Yogis, Sanyasis, Bairagis, and other strange Hindu 
Sectaries" (London, 1903). 

The subject of asceticism in Judaism has of late years been 
more sympathetically treated than used to be the case. The 
Jewish theologians of a former generation were concerned to 

312 



NOTES— LOST PURIM JOYS 

attack the excesses to which an ascetic course of life may lead. 
This attack remains as firmly justified as ever. But to deny a 
place to asceticism in the Jewish scheme, is at once to pronounce 
the latter defective and do violence to fact. 

Speaking of the association of fasting with repentance, Dr. 
Schechter says : " It is in conformity with this sentiment, for 
which there is abundant authority both in the Scriptures and in 
the Talmud, that ascetic practices tending both as a sacrifice 
and as a castigatlon of the flesh, making relapse impossible, be- 
come a regular feature of the penitential course in the medieval 
Rabbinic literature" ("Some Aspects of Rabbinic Theology," 
1909, pp. 339-340). 

Moreover, the fuller appreciation of the Idea of salntllness, 
and the higher esteem of the m)^stlcal elements in Judaism — 
ideas scarcely to be divorced from asceticism — have helped to 
confirm the newer attitude. Here, too. Dr. Schechter has done a 
real service to theology. The Second Series of his " Studies In 
Judaism " contains much on this subject. What he has written 
should enable future exponents of Judaism to form a more 
balanced judgment on the whole matter. 

Fortunately, the newer view Is not confined to any one school 
of Jewish thought. The reader will find. In two addresses con- 
tained In Mr. C. G. Montefiore's "Truth In Religion" (1906), an 
able attempt to weigh the value and the danger of an ascetic view 
of life. It was, Indeed, time that the Jewish attitude towards so 
powerful a force should be reconsidered. 

LOST PURIM JOYS 

(pp. 266-272) 

The burning of Haman in effigy is recorded In the Responsa 
of a Gaon published by Professor L. GInzberg In his " Genlza 
Studies" ("Geonica," II, pp. 1-3). He holds that the statement 
as to the employment of " Purim bonfires among the Babylonian 
and Elamltic Jews as given in the Aruch {s, v. "^^W) undoubt- 
edly goes back to this Responsum." 

313 



NOTES— THE SHAPE OF MATZOTH 

On ^urim parodies much useful information will be found in 
Dr. Israel Davidson's ** Parody in Jewish Literature" (New 
York, 1907). See Index s. v. Purim (p. 289). 

For a statement of the supposed connection between Purim 
and other spring festivals, see Paul Haupt's "Purim" (Balti- 
more, 1906), and the article in the ''Encyclopaedia Biblica," cols. 
3976-3983. Such theories do not account adequately for the 
Book of Esther. 

Schudt (Jiidische Merk'wurdtgheiten, 171 3, ii, p. 314) gives a 
sprightly account of what seems to have been the first public 
performance of a Purim play in Germany. 

JEWS AND LETTERS 

(pp. 273-289) 

Leopold Low Investigated the history of writing, and of the 
materials used among the Jews, in his Graphische Requisiten 
und Erzeugnisse hei den Juden (2 vols., Leipzig, 1870-71). 

On Jewish letter-carriers in Germany, see the article of Dr. I. 
Kracauer in the "Jewish Encyclopedia," viil, p. 15. The first 
Post-Jude Is named In 1722. These Jewish letter-carriers re- 
ceived no salary from the Government, but collected a fee from 
the recipients of the letters. 

The Talmudic Be-Dawar C^^H''^) was really a Court of 
Justice (perhaps a Circuit Court). As, however, da'war meant 
a despatch-bearer, the phrase Be-Dawar passed over later into 
the meaning Post-Office. Davvar seems connected with the root 
dur, "to form a circle" ; the pael form (da'war) would mean 
" to go around," perhaps to travel with merchandise and letters. 

THE SHAPE OF MATZOTH 

(pp. 290-300) 
In the twentieth chapter of Proverbs v. 17, we find the maxim: 
" Bread gained by fraud is sweet to a man. 
But afterwards his mouth will be filled with gravel." 
314 



NOTES— THE SHAPE OF MATZOTH 

The exact point of this comparison was brought home to me 
•when I spent a night at Modin, the ancient home of the Macca- 
bees. Over night I enjoyed the hospitality of a Bedouin. In the 
morning I was given some native bread for breakfast. I was 
very hungry, and I took a large and hasty bite at the bread, 
when lo! my mouth was full of gravel. They make the bread 
as follows: One person rolls the dough into a thin round cake 
(resembling a Matzah), while another person places hot cinders 
on the ground. The cake is put on the cinders and gravel, and 
an earthenware pot is spread over all, to retain the heat. Hence 
the bread comes out with fragments of gravel and cinder in it. 
Woe betide the hasty eater! Compare Lamentations iii. i6, 
" He hath broken my teeth with gravel stones." This, then, may 
be the meaning of the proverb cited at the head of this note. 
Bread hastily snatched, advantages thoughtlessly or fraudulently 
grasped, may appear sweet in anticipation, but eventually they 
fill a man's mouth with gravel. 

The quotation from Paulus Aringhus' Roma suhterranea 
nomssima will be found in vol. ii, p. 533 of the first edition 
(Rome, 1651). This work, dealing mainly with the Christian 
sepulchres in Rome, was reprinted in Amsterdam (1659) and 
Arnheim (1671), and a German translation appeared in Arnheim 
in 1668. The first volume (pp. 390 et seq.) fully describes the 
Jewish tombs in Rome, and cites the Judeo-Greek inscriptions. 
There is much else to interest the Jewish student in these two 
stately and finely illustrated folios. 



315 



INDEX 



Aaron of Bagdad, 132. 

Abarbanel, Isaac, 118. 

Abdemon at Hiram's Court, 302. 

Abner, 71. 

Abraham, the Patriarch, 66, 68, 
92. 

Absalom, 71. 

Achimaaz, Chronicle of, 127, 132, 
305- 

Achofh Ketannah, melody, 218. 

Adam and Eve at Hebron, 67, 68, 
79- 

Akiba, 147, 198. 

Akrish, Isaac, 20. 

Alami, Solomon, 238. 

Alexander the Great's city foun- 
dations, 216. 

Alexandria, 129. 

Alexandrian Songs, 194. 

Alfonso V, 118. 

Alfred the Great translates Boe- 
thius, 117. 

Allegorization of Canticles, 217. 

Alliance Israelite, 65, 85, 89, 140. 

Alonzo of Aragon, 109. 

Alphabetum Siracidis, 162, 306. 

Alroy, 131. 

Amarna tablets, 279. 

Amoraim and their correspond- 
ence, 283. 

Amos, 67. 

Anacreon, 17, 215, 217. 

Anglo-Jewish Association, 85, 88. 

Anka, 307. 

Arabic lore, 18, 48; love songs, 
184, 232; in the liturgy, 180; 
poetical forms, 22;^. 



Architecture, Oriental, -^6. 

Aringhus on the form of Eu- 
charistic loaves, 294; his 
Roma subterranea, 315. 

Aristotle, 54, 161. 

Arnold, Matthew, 96. 

Arrows as missives, 278. 

Asceticism in Judaism, 259, 313. 

Asia Minor, 147, 153. 

Asmodeus, 22. 

Ass in legend, 40, 54, 132, 168. - 

Assouan Papyri, 280. 

Baalshem, Israel, 179. 

Bachurim on their travels, 135, 

146. 
Bacon, Francis, 112. 
Bacon, Roger, 311. 
Badge discarded in wayfaring, 126. 
Bamberger, of Wurzburg, 289. 
Barcelona, 11, 21, 59, 234. 
Bar-Cochba, 71, 135, 282. 
Bari, 133. 

Barton's Psalter, 247, 311. 
Bath-Kol, 180. 
Battus, in Theocritus, 211. 
Beaucaire, Bachurim at, 147. 
Be-Davvar, 2ys, 3i4- 
Bedouins, yj, 80, 87, 315. 
Beggars, travelling, 143. 
Benfey, 165. 

Benjamin of Tudela, 131, 147, 305. 
Benveniste, Sheshet, 60. 
Benvenuto, 132. 
Berach Dodi, melody, 218. 
Berechiah ha-Nakdan, 150, 167. 
Beriah and Tamar, 235. 



317 



INDEX 



Bethlehem, S-j, 74, 79, 87. 

Beth-Zacharias, 67. 

Beth-Zur, 67. 

Bidpai, 150. 

Boar in legend, 168. 

Boccaccio, 169. 

Bodley founds his library at Ox- 
ford, 118. 

Boethius, 117. 

Bonfires on Purim, 267. 

" Book of Delight," 9 et seq., 301. 

" Book of the Pious," 99, 155, 179, 
304- 

" Book-Lover's Enchiridion," loi, 
113, 304- 

Bottle-making, 86. 

Bread of Bedouins, 315. 

Brentano, 229. 

Bridge Laws, 151. 

Buddhist Legends, 150. 

Burial Laws in Angevin Etigland, 
151. 

Cabbala, 252, 259, 312. 

Caleb, 71. 

Cambridge Platonists, 251. 

Captives, ransom of, 140. 

Caro, Joseph, 107. 

Carvajal, Antonio Fernandes, 153. 

Chananiah, 282. 

Chanukah, 281. 

Charizi as writer of rhymed prose, 
10; as traveller, 134; as trans- 
mitter of folk-tales, 150; as 
author of love poems, 229. 

Charles the Great, 127. 

Chasdai and the Chazars, 284. 

Chaucer, 120. 

Chesterfield, Lord, loi. 

" Choice of Pearls," 18. 

Cicero, 113. 

Clare, John, 121. 

" Clever Girl, The, and the King's 
Dream," ^7- 

Cologne, 128. 

Conversation, 22, 48, 133. 



Costume on journeys, 125. 
Crawford Haggadah, 298. 
Crocodile in folk-tales, 165. 
Cromwell, 154. 

Cudworth at Whitehall Confer- 
ence, 312. 

Daniel Deronda, 172, 244, 310. 

Dante, 235. 

Daphnis, 208. 

David, King, 6y, 71, 279. 

Demons, 21, 55 et seq. 

Demosthenes, 104. 

Diogenes, 34, 49. 

" Dishonest Singer, The, and the 

Wedding Robes," 40. 
Divination, 176. 
Dog, Tobit's, 19. 
Dogs in the East, yj. 
Dove as messenger, 278. 
Dyers, 72- 

Ecclesiasticus, 199, 307. 

Eclogues, 194. 

Egyptian love songs, 309; parallels 

to Canticles, 207, 215. 
Elijah, 148. 
Elijah, Gaon, 139. 
Eliot, George, 172, 174, 242. 
Emotionalism of Jews, 272. 
Enan in the " Book of Delight," 

28. 
Erasmus, 113, 304. 
Erter, 13. 

Essenes as travellers, 141. 
Eucharistic loaves, 291. 
Euphrates, 131. 

Fairs, 144. 

Fasting, 313. 

Flowers in Palestine, 201. 

" Fox and Hole," 52. 

" Fox, The, and the Leopard," 29. 

" Fox and Lion," 30. 

" Fox's Heart, The," 159 et seq. 

Franco, Rachmim Joseph, 82. 



318 



INDEX 



Gaeta, 132. 

Galilee, 135. 

Gamaliel, 282. 

Geiger, 11, 230. 

Gelasius, pope, 302. 

Geonim, correspondence of, 282, 

Gershom, Rabbenu, 287. 

Ghetto regulations as to residence, 

141. 
Giants, 22, 2T, 62, 63. 
Gil Bias, 21. 
Gilbert de Porre, 100. 
Gilead, shepherds of, 200. 
Glassware at Hebron, 86, 
Goethe, 229. 
Graetz, 120, 196, 243, 305, 309. 

Hadrian, 71. 

Haggadah, illuminated, 297. 

Ha-Gomel, 148. 

Haman, effigy, 266, 313. 

Hafiz, 223-4. 

Haram, enclosure at Hebron, 88. 

Haroun al-Rashid, 139. 

Heart, legends and poems concern- 
ing the, 159 et seq. 

Hebrew as living language, 220, 
312. 

Hebron, 62 et seq., 148. 

Heine, 160, 240. 

Helen and Shulammith, 214. 

Helena, 127. 

Herod, 65, 89. 

Hillel, 145, 200. 

Hindu saints, 259. 

Hosea, 195. 

Hypatia, 138. 

Ibn Chasdai, Abraham, author of 

" Prince and Dervish," 150, 

234. 
Ibn Daud, Abraham, at Narbonne, 

147- 
Ibn Ezra, Abraham, as traveller, 

147; his optimism, 149; as 

lyricist, 225. 



Ibn Ezra, Moses, author of love 

songs, 223, 231. 
Ibn Gabirol, Solomon, as writer of 

metrical epistles, 221; his love 

poems, 229. 
Ibn Nagrela, Samuel, author of 

the " Stammering Maid," 221. 
Ibn Tibbon, Judah, on the solace 

of books, 93, 303. 
Ibn Verga, author of the Shebet 

Jehudah, 159. 
Ibrahim, Pasha of Egypt, 91. 
Idylls of Theocritus, 202, 308. 
Iggereth, 286. 
Immanuel of Rome, 235, 
Indian folk-lore, 17; saints and 

mystics, 259, 312. 
Isaac, 91; his marriage, 180. 
Isaac of Erfurt, 129. 
Ishbosheth, 71. 

Jaabez Press, 20. 

Jaffa, 87. 

Jain ascetics, 265. 

Jamnia, 95. 

Jebb, Richard, 115. 

Jehudah Halevi, journeys to Pales- 
tine, 134; quoted, 170; his 
love poems, 22$ et seq. 

Jerusalem, 62, 66, 70, 156, 157. 

Jezebel, 279. 

Joab, 71. 

Jose bar Chalafta, 172. 

Josephus, 129, 302. 

Joshua, 277. 

Judah I, 135. 

Judah the Pious, 99, 104. 

Kalilah ve-Dimnah, 9. 
Kalir, 221, 297. 

Karma (Indian) and Zechuth (He- 
brew), 264. 
Kevlaar, 160. 
Kimchi family, 11, 278. 
Kiriath-arba, 71. 



319 



INDEX 



Lamb, Charles, ii6. 

Lanterns, 76. 

Lazarus, Emma, 230. 

Leisure and learning, 200. 

Leopard cycle in Zabara, 28 et seq. 

Letter-writing, 155, 289. 

Levantine melodies for Piyyutim, 
218. 

Levantine trade, 153. 

Leviathan in legend, 162 et seq. 

Levy, Amy, 230, 310. 

Lihellarius, 280. 

Licenses to travel, 124. 

Lightfoot, 93. 

Lion in folk-tales, 30, 167. 

Lorenz, Bishop, 126. 

Lovelace, 186. 

" Lover's Companion," on Persian 
Rhetoric, 225. 

Love songs, Hebrew, 184 et seq. 

Low, Leopold, 314. 

Luria, Isaac, 239. 

Luzzatto, Ephraim, author of He- 
brew sonnets, 240. 

Luzzatto, Moses Chayyim, 239. 

Maccabean sites, 67. 

Macedonian folk-songs, 218, 310. 

Machberoth Immanuel, 235 et seq. 

Machpelah, Cave of, 65, 74, 88, 
303. 

Maharil, 134. 

Maimon, Solomon, 242, 310. 

Maimonides, in Hebron, 72; his 
Mishneh Torah, 107; as trav- 
eller, 134; his criticism of mu- 
sical songs, 237; as writer of 
Response, 281; his "Guide of 
the Perplexed," 284; refers 
to leather scrolls, 286. 

Mamre, 68, 70, 

Mannheim, 152. 

" Man's Love and Woman's," 32. 

Marcolf, 22, 301. 

Marcolis-Mercury, 302. 

Marcolphus, 302. 



Marcus Aurelius, 115. 

Mariners' tales, 145. 

Markets in Middle Ages, 126. 

Marriage song, 227. 

" Marriages are made in Heaven," 

172 et seq., 307. 
Martial's epigrams, 105. 
Martineau, James, 115. 
Matzoth, 83, 290, 315. 
Mauclerc, 25. 

" Maxims of the Philosophers," 18. 
Medieval wayfaring, 122 et seq. 
Megillah, reading the, iii. 
Melodies, 218, 238. 
Memory specific, 297. 
Mendelssohn, Moses, 179, 310. 
Messengers, 277. 
Milton, 104, 117, 186, 219, 247, 

253, 311. 
Miracles, 132. 
Mishle Shualim, 167. 
Missions, 63, 281. 
Modin, 77, 315. 
Monkey in folk-tales, 165, 166. 
Monogamy, 191. 
Montaigne, 94, 112, 304. 
Moore, Thomas, 114. 
More, Henry, 252, 312. 
Morolf, 22, 301. 
Moza Colony, yz- 
Musicians, 149. 
Mysticism and love, 217 et seq., 

238-9, 308. 

Nachmanides in Hebron, 72', as let- 
ter-writer, 157, 306. 

Najara, Israel, author of mystical 
hymns, 238. 

Name, Divine, 131, 160. 

Narbonne, 147. 

Natronai, 131. 

Nehemiah, 71, 280. 

New Moon, 276. 

Nike, 213. 

Nineveh, 125. 

Neubauer, 109. 



320 



INDEX 



Noah and the dove, 278. 
" Nobleman, The, and the Neck- 
lace," 41. 

Oak, Abraham's, 69. 

Obadiah of Bertinoro, 72, 155, 306. 

Ophrah, 228-9. 

Oria, 133. 

Packmen, Jewish, 288. 
Pal'dstinischer Diwan, 308. 
Palestine, envoys from, 144; vis- 
itors to, 63, 67, 72, y^, 127, 

128, 306. 
Pantscliatantra, 165, 177. 
Paper, 286. 
Papyrus, 286. 
Paradise, 6y, 79. 
** Paradise and Hell," 235, 
" Paralytic's, The, Touchstone of 

Virtue," 47. 
Parodies, Purim, 268, 314. 
Persia, 134. 

Persian love-poetry, 22^. 
Petachiah, 125, 133. 
Philo, 131, 251. 
Philobiblon, 97, 304. 
Physicians, Satires on, 12. 
Picard, 291, 293, 294. 
Plato, 1 01, 176. 
Pliny, 159, 1 60-1. 
Pools of Solomon, 66. 
Postal arrangements in Jewry, 

144, 273 et seq. 
Prague, 125. 

" Prince and Dervish," 234. 
" Princess, The, and the Rose," 

52. 
Printing, effect of, on reading, 

106. 
Proverb lore, 11, 25, 38, 130. 
" Proverbs of the Wise," 18. 
Psalter, English Metrical Versions, 

247 et seq. 
Purim joys, 266. 
Purim plays, 269. 



Queen Sabbath, 239. 

Rab, 179. 

Raba, 177. 

Rachel, tomb of, 66. 

Radhi, Billah, 223. 

Ramet el-Khalil, 70, 303. 

Ramleh, 128. 

Raphael, 175. 

Reading, 102 et seq. 

Rebekah, 91. 

Refrains in Hebrew lyrics, 204. 

Rehoboam, 71. 

Repertory theory of the structure 
of Canticles, 202, 219, 308. 

Responsa, how communicated, 283. 

Reubeni, David, 72, 73. 

Reuchlin, 249, 311. 

Rhymed prose, 26. 

Rhythmic movement in study and 
prayer, 95. 

Richard of Bury, 97, 303. 

Riddles, 22, 25, 220. 

Roman letter-carriers, 274. 

Romanelli, Samuel, 239. 

Rome, 143, 315. 

Rous, Francis, and the Psalter, 
247, 311. 

Routes followed by Jewish trav- 
ellers and merchants in the 
Middle Ages, 135, 153. 

Ruth, 195. 

Saadia, 119, 297. 

Sabbatai Zebi, 74, 245. 

Sabbath, 136, 239. 

Sacaea and Purim, 269. 

Sadhu and Yogi, 260. 

Sailors, Jewish, 137. 

Saladin, 128. 

Salomon Mainion's Lehensge- 

schichte, 243, 310. 
Sambatyon, river, 145. 
Sanballat, 281. 
Satan, 15, 55. 
Saturn, 22, 301. 



321 



INDEX 



Saul, 279. 

Schudt, 314. 

Secular Hebrew poetry, 219. 

Sefer ha-Galui, 119. 

Sefer Rasiel, 296. 

" Sendabar," 18. 

" Separation," 230. 

Sepphoris, 135, 145. 

Seudoth Mitzvah, 148. 

Seven Benedictions at Wedding, 

180. 
Shadclian, 134, 144. 
Shakespeare, 117, 175, 186, 189. 
Sheba, Queen of, 25. 
Shebet Jehudah, 160. 
Shechinah, 117, 

Sheliach Kolel in Algiers, 140. 
Shepherd life idealized, 196. 
Shipowners, Jewish, 153. 
Shulammith, 186. 
Sicilian rural life, 194; love songs, 

194. 
Signals, 276, 
" Silversmith, The, who followed 

his Wife's Counsel," 31. 
Simaitha, 202. 
Simon the Pious, 128. 
" Sindbad," 9. 
Singers, 41. 
Socrates, 34. 
Soferim, or Scribes, 280. 
Solace of books, 93 et seq. 
Solomon, King, 120, 140; in leg- 
end, 21, 181, 284, 301-2, 307. 
Solomon-Marcolf legend, 10, 301. 
Solomon the Levite, Don, 159. 
" Son, The, and the Slave," 42. 
Song of Songs, 185 et seq. 
Spencer, Herbert, 112. 
Spenser, Edmund, 120, 219. 
Spring in nature and in poetry, 

186, 194. 
" Stammering Maid, The," 222, 

310. 
Steinschneider, 11, 20, 105, 162, 

306, 307. 



Stevenson, R, L., 105. 

" Stories of King Solomon," 18. 

Stype, John, 94. 

Synagogues in Hebron, 81. 

Synesius of Cyrene, 136, 305. 

Swift, Jonathan, 105. 

Tabellarius, 274. 

Table Talk, 48; see also Conversa- 
tion. 

Tam, Jacob, 288. 

Tannery at Hebron, 86. 

Targum on Canticles, 308. 

Taubah, 232. 

Tekoah, 66. 

Temple dues, 131. 

Tennyson's " Maud," 231. 

Threes in proverbial maxims, 50. 

Theocritus and Canticles, 189, 192 
et seq. 

Thyrsis, 208. 

Tiberias, 129. 

Tigris, 125. 

Tobit, 19, 43, 161, 17s, 307. 

Tombs, Oriental veneration of, 66, 
71, 88, 14s, 315. 

Town life in Greek period, 216. 

Traffic on Palestinian roads, 75. 

Travellers, 122 et seq. 

Trier, 128. 

Troubadours, 184. 

Uggoth Matzoth, 292. 

Venice, 152. 

Vintage songs, 188. 

Virtuous Woman of Proverbs, 191. 

Wasf, Syrian marriage ode, 185, 

192, 216. 
" Washerwoman, The, who did the 

Devil's Work," 57. 
Wayfarers, prayer for, 130; prayers 

of, 135. 
Weavers, 73. 
Wedding processions, 149. 



322 



INDEX 



Western influences on Orient, 63. 

Wetzstein and the wasf, 308. 

" Widow, The, and her Husband's 

Corpse," 35. 
" Widow's Vow, The," 15. 
Wine-making, 84. 
Wisdom of Solomon, 121, 304. 
"Women's Contentions," 15. 
Women, treatment of, in medieval 

literature, 14, 16, 34, 234, 

236, 239. 
Women pilgrims, 124-5, 127. 



" Woodcutter, The, and the 

Woman," 31. 
Writing materials, 285. 

Yalkut, 167; Reuheni, 178. 
Yiddish, 255, 312. 

Zabara, Joseph, 9 et seq., 234, 

301. 
Zebi Hirsch, 165. 
Zephyrinus, Pope, 291. 
Zoheir, 224. 



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